Stargate: Enterprise
by D'terran
Summary: Instead of taking them to the Xindi Council, a spacial anomaly takes the crew of the Enterprise to meet General Sheppard and Admiral Caldwell of the Tau'ri.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 01

A lone, small starship was travelling toward a large nebula. Its dark grey hull was covered in scorch marks and blast holes from recent battle. Some of the once bright blue field coils that run the length of the large nacelles now flicker or are dark entirely from combat. The words Enterprise NX-01 are barely perceptible above the damaged deflector array.

Onboard the small vessel, there was a general sense of hopelessness. The recent loss of thirteen fellow crewmen filled many faces of the small crew with loss and depression. Even among the senior staff, people who were looked up to and must set an example, showed deep loss, especially on the supposedly emotionless Vulcan.

They were on course to a subspace anomaly that would act as a shortcut for the ship to reach the Xindi Council, a council of the five different races of Xindi, to plead the case of Earth and to save the entire planet from the Xindi Planet Killer. The vessel dropped out of warp speed and approached the nebula at impulse speed. The blue impulse engines brightened as they pushed the vessel forward through space. Small corrections and maneuvers being made by the ship's brilliant pilot, Travis Mayweather.

"We have dropped out of warp 10,000 kilometers away from the nebula, Sir," Mayweather announced to the captain of the Enterprise, Captain Jonathan Archer.

"Scans," Archer asked of his Vulcan science officer and second in command, T'pol.

"The effects of the nebula are blocking any sort of internal scans," she replied in her common monotone. Archer turned toward his tactical officer, Malcolm Reed.

"Any vessels on scanners?" he asked the European.

"None that I can detect, however I can't tell if there are any in hiding within the nebula," Reed stated as fast as his console could tell him. Tension on the bridge grew even further as there were a lot of unknowns, but the anomaly was the only way to get to the Xindi council on time.

"Slow and steady Mr. Mayweather," Archer ordered.

"Aye sir," the pilot responded while simultaneously tapping commands into his console. The impulse engines pushed the vessel forward and as they entered he nebula, it's strange effects began to affect specific ship systems. The view screen gained a new sort of static that blurred the image and the sensor quality, already fairly low from combat damage, fell even further. Everyone on the bridge was watching their console diligently to find anything that can be a danger for the ship and its crew either unintentionally or not. Then, for less than a second, there were several Unknowns spotted before the nebula's effects blocked out the signals. Mr. Reed began to sweat when he read the number of unknown signals.

"Captain, I had several unknown signals on sensors for a moment but they've vanished. Most likely it is the nebula interfering with our scanners," he stated. Archer turned to T'pol.

"Is our impulse signature still masked?" he asked her.

"Yes however their sensors may be stronger than we gave them credit for," she stated with slight worry.

"Can we increase speed?"

"I wouldn't recommend it as our signature would only increase and, therefore, be easier to detect." Weighing the options Archer ordered Maywhether to keep the same speed. The Enterprise continued forward as silently as she could with the power she had. Unfortunately, it seems as though Lady Luck had abandoned the damaged starship as multiple vessels popped up on Lt. Reed's sensors well within their respective weapon ranges.

"Multiple vessels on an intercept course! They're targeting us," Reed yelled. Sparks flew as circuits overloaded from more damage than they were ever designed to take. Archer, as the only person standing on the bridge, was thrown to the floor as the ship shook from the damage. Maywhether extended his arm to his captain to help Archer off of the floor. He took the arm gratefully.

"Polarize the hull plating and return fire," Archer ordered Reed before turning to Maywhether. "Travis increase speed. Get us to that anomaly." As the engines of the Enterprise flared to push the ship faster to its target, small ports opened up on the dorsal and ventral sides of the hull with small turrets extending from them. The primary weapons of the starship opened fire with crimson streaks of phased energy colliding with the green energy barriers of the attacking vessels.

"Minimal damage to their shields," Reed stated. The ship shook violently from another blow. "Hull plating is down to twenty-three percent!"

"Travis we need you to get us there a bit faster," Archer ordered. Maywhether didn't even respond as he was diverting as much energy as he could directly into the impulse engines. The Enterprise shot forward as a sudden burst of speed started to put some distance between it and its attackers and moved toward the glowing spacial anomaly. One lucky blow managed to blow a hole in the port nacelle releasing the warp plasma that was normally running through the cylinder.

The warp plasma had an effect on the nebula that neither of the parties knew about. The plasma mixed with the odd gases of the nebula and caused the anomaly to destabilize again without the notice of the Enterprise crew or the crews of the alien vessels.

"Thirty seconds until we reach the rift!" T'pol exclaimed. Another round of shaking and sparks signified the alien vessels still hadn't given up the chase.

"Hull plating is gone as well as the aft launchers!" yelled Lt. Reed.

"Twenty seconds!" T'pol counted down. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six…." Archer pressed a button on his command chair that opened up the speakers to all decks.

"All hands brace!" he yelled.

"Five, four, three, two, one. Entering the anomaly now!" T'pol stated. The ship began to shake uncontrollably with a bright light shining so much that those on the bridge had to cover their eyes from the viewscreen alone. A large jolt sent everyone on the starship flying as the ship suddenly came to a halt signifying that they had exited the rift.

 ** _My first story ever so any reviews are welcome. Beside flames of course. Thank you._**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 02

A massive blue portal appeared in the middle of nowhere on any starmap and spewed out eight large warships, Seven were of similar size with a bulky base, a single long neck that extended forward, and two hangar bays that attached to the port and starboard sides of the base. The eighth vessel was like a much larger variant of its smaller escorts with a longer and wider neck, larger hangars with doors on the fore and aft sides, and a much larger engine compartment that extends out the back of the large base.

There were two large symbols that were brightly lit on the outer sides of the hull. The first was the name Achilles while the other was a strange symbol with what looked like an arrow pointing up with a small circle just above it. To a newcomer this means nothing, but to the rest of two different galaxies, that symbol belongs to humanity or as they call themselves, the Tau'ri.

A man with salt and pepper hair walked onto the bustling bridge of the Tau'ri Battleship Achilles. His battle hardened eyes scanned through the navy blue uniforms until he found the one that belonged to the man he wished to speak with.

"Admiral Caldwell. Is there a particular reason have we dropped out of hyperspace?" he asked with a slightly humorous smirk. The now named admiral turned his head toward the one who had called his name and smirked himself.

"General Sheppard. One of our egg-heads down in the lab said that the sensors detected some sort of anomaly. We are just checking it out to see what is happening. I've already sent word to Fleet Com that we have taken a quick detour," the Admiral stated.

"Sir, something is happening. The anomaly is growing in size," an officer notified Caldwell.

"Is it a danger to us at all?"

"Not that I can detect but I am reading a mixture of plasma and different gases that are commonly found in nebulae. Wait. Sensors are detecting a large mass coming through the anomaly sir."

"Have the Prometheus break formation to investigate," Caldwell ordered the communications officer.

"Aye,sir," she replied and sent the message to the Daedalus II class Battlecruiser, Prometheus. The vessel was named after the first spacial warship built by the Tau'ri before the planet Earth had united under tof the Tau'ri. The Prometheus' engines flared as they pushed the vessel toward the anomaly. Its eight Eagle fighters running escort with the complement of six Condor fighter-bombers on standby in case the Prometheus comes under fire.

"Send a live feed directly to the Achilles. In case something happens I want someone to have a record," the commanding officer of the Prometheus ordered.

"Aye sir."

"Sir we are receiving live footage from our escort," the comms officer reported.

"Let's see it then," Caldwell stated. What seemed to be a screen popped up on the forward windows that made up the bridge viewscreen. On it showed the bright white anomaly in all its strange glory. All of a sudden, a vessel about the same size as a Daedalus I class Battlecruiser was thrown out of the anomaly. It had a single large saucer connected to two cylindrical projections connected by pylons to the main saucer with an overall length of 225 meters.

"That ship has seen some battle. Look at the damage all around the saucer there," Sheppard pointed out and he was correct. There were obvious signs of heavy combat all over the vessel. Some of it looked older while some of the damage was recent enough that some of the metal was still red from being super-heated. The ship was adrift and some of the lights that could still be seen were flickering from a lack of power.

"Is there anyone aboard?" Caldwell openly asked. Multiple crewmen started working excessively at their stations to answer is question. Finally a crewman spoke up.

"I am reading multiple lifeforms. Mostly human but two are unidentifiable. Human-like but we would need a much more detailed scan," he stated. Caldwell looked to be in thought for a moment before turning toward his comm officer.

"Have the Prometheus try and contact that ship," he ordered. "Order them to raise shields and hold position until the rest of the fleet arrives. All ships move forward at half speed. Let's be cautious here." The comm officer nodded her head before relaying the orders to the Prometheus and the rest of the fleet. Engines from all of the different ships flared as they moved toward the new vessel.

(Line Break)

Multiple groans of pain could be heard all around the bridge of the Enterprise as the command crew pulled themselves up off of the deck plating. Lights were flickering and sparks flew from damaged circuits and power lines. Captain Archer was one of the first to rise helping Mr. Maywhether get on his feet as well.

"Everyone alright?" Archer asked as he looked about. Everyone responded with a nod of their head or a weak, "Yes, sir." T'pol was the loudest response.

"We are all right captain," she stated in her usual emotionless tone. Archer nodded his head and took one last look before giving his next order.

"Status report," he asked. Everyone on the bridge began typing on their consoles to check damage reports. Mr. Reed was the first to speak.

"Torpedos and hull polarization is offline. Phase cannons are barely operational. Targeting scanners are gone and we have a breach on C deck. Bulkheads are in place" he finished. Maywhether started next.

"Impulse and warp drives are offline. Maneuvering thrusters barely operable and helm control is offline. Viewscreen is offline as well." Ms. Sato spoke up next.

"Reports coming in now. We have several injured but all minor burns and bruises. All crewmen are accounted for." Finally, T'pol spoke.

"Sensors are barely functional but they are repairable." That is when the internal comm sounded on the bridge.

"Tucker to the bridge!" the starship's chief engineer yelled out. Archer pressed a button on his command chair that opened up a direct link to engineering.

"Go ahead Trip," Archer responded.

"We have extensive damage all around the ship cap'n. The port nacelle took some damage, a good number of plasma relays are blown out, and two of our injectors are fried. Until I can fabricate some new ones, we're stuck at impulse power," Trip read out.

"Do what you can," Archer ordered before closing the comm. "Malcolm see what you can do about the weapons and hull. I don't want to be caught flat-footed wherever we are."

"Aye, sir." Everyone began the long process of bringing the starship back up to working order when T'pol spoke up with suppressed alarm in her voice.

"Captain. Sensors are picking up a vessel approximately fourteen kilometers away." Those words made everyone immediately stop what they are doing and look at her.

"Degra's ship?" Archer asked.

"I don't believe so. The vessel I'm detecting is slightly larger than the Enterprise. Sensors are still too damaged to make out anything else," She stated. Archer turned to Lt. Reed.

"Do we have power for weapons?"

"We may be able to fire of a few shots with the Phase cannons but we are still a stationary target and I can't polarize the hull," Reed read out. Then Hoshi spoke up.

"Sir, I'm getting a message from the unidentified vessel."

"Put it on speakers Hoshi," Archer ordered. Hoshi pressed a sequence of buttons before a gruff yet human sounding voice came out of the speakers.

"...Repeat, this is Captain James Schumer of the Tau'ri battlecruiser Prometheus calling to the vessel designated NX-01 Enterprise please respond. Repeat, this is…" The voice repeated the same message several times. Archer looked to T'pol to see if she recognized the name Tau'ri.

"Have the Vulcans ever encountered a species called the Tau'ri?" he asked T'pol. She looked thoughtful before opening up the Vulcan database to see if there was any record of a species that shared that name. When nothing came up, she spoke to her Captain.

"I nor the database has any record of a species or subspecies that called themselves by that name. However the name of the vessel intrigues me. If I remember human mythology correctly, Prometheus was the Titan that disobeyed the orders of the king of the gods, Zeus, when he gave humanity fire. He was punished by being chained to a rock and having a vulture feast on him every day and at the end of every day, his injuries would heal so that he would always feel pain," she explained.

"So the question is why a vessel of an unknown species carry the name of a mythological Titan from Earth," Archer finished.

"Precisely. The odds of two plants sharing a similar name, even without the context behind such a name, is mathematically impossible," T'pol said with a hint of curiosity. Archer gave it a thought before turning to Hoshi.

"Let's see where they got their name from. Hoshi, open a channel," Archer ordered, part of his character from before Earth was attacked shone through for a moment. Hoshi typed a few commands before nodding toward her captain.

"Channel open sir."

"Attention vessel identified as the Tau'ri battlecruiser Prometheus, my name is Captain Jonathan Archer of the Starfleet vessel Enterprise. May I ask who are the Tau'ri?" There was silence for a moment on the line before the man identified as Captain James Schumer spoke again.

"Honestly, it's hard to find anyone in this galaxy who hasn't heard of us. In other galaxies though, it's a bit more common for someone to not have heard of us." The galaxy comment brought a sense to nervousness to Archer.

"I'm sorry, but can you tell me what galaxy we are in? I know it is an odd question but I just wish to know."

"It's not that odd. We are constantly travelling to and from the Pegasus galaxy. You are in what we call the Milky Way galaxy," the captain of the Prometheus stated. Archer's eyebrows rose up in surprise. Not one, but two names were shared by the Tau'ri and the history of his home planet. This was getting extremely worrying.

"I have another question if you would indulge me," Archer asked again. There was another moment of silence before a response.

"Ask away captain," Schumer said. Archer took a breath before opening his mouth.

"What is the current date on a planet called Earth?" Archer was me by absolute silence. One minute passed, then another, and another before a full five minutes had passed. Archer was starting to sweat in anticipation. Finally, Captain Schumer spoke again.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask a question with a question, or two rather. How do you know about Earth, but not the Tau'ri and what is your business with the planet?" he asked. Archer was extremely confused about the questions before asking one more time.

"Please just indulge me. I need to know." There was silence one more time before the answer was revealed.

"The current date on the planet Earth is September 22nd, 2046."

 _Another chapter for those who wish to read it. All Tau'ri ship designs are similar to the vessels found in wilkins75's story entitled, "_ Contact at Kobol." _A great story that combines Stargate and Battlestar Galactica 2003 though I am not going to use that history entirely for the Tau'ri. I trully recommend you read it._ _Reviews welcome, and thank you._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Absolute silence ran over the bridge. All that could be heard was the humming from the ship and the breathing of the command crew. Archer himself looked at each person on the bridge with a look of fear on his face. The silence continued for a few moments before Acher turned toward Maywhether.

"Travis I want that viewscreen online," he ordered. Travis immediately went to work trying to bypass damaged circuits and divert power so that the screen would start to work. A minute later a slightly static filled picture of the stars showed on the screen. With some more tinkering the screen cleared up and to the casual observer, there was nothing wrong. Travis Maywhether, on the other hand, knew something was wrong and he stated it.

"Sir, the stars. They aren't where they are supposed to be." Archer glanced toward T'pol before moving toward the helm. Travis continued. "There are also stars that shouldn't be there."

"T'pol could we have gone back in time? And don't give me that crap about time travel being impossible just give me an answer." T'pol went to work with what little sensors she had before returning her gaze to Archer.

"The stars do correspond with star charts of that period however there are stars that shouldn't exist in this time period," she explained. Then a voice that everyone on the bridge of the Enterprise had momentarily forgotten spoke up.

"You believe you travelled through time?" Captain Schumer asked through the audio communication. Archer was quiet before answering.

"It wouldn't be the first time we have done so. We have had several different encounters with time travel," he replied.

"There is actually someone here in the fleet that has some experience as well. Give me a moment to contact him," Schumer stated before the line went dead. A new voice spoke up that sounded a bit more battle hardened than Captain Schumer.

"This is General John Sheppard of Pegasus Command. I hear you've had some temporal mishap?" The slight hint of hilarity could be heard in John's voice that Archer quickly picked up on. He thought he would be annoyed yet he was somewhat relaxed at the fact that this man wasn't as uptight seeming as Schumer.

"Hello General. My name is Captain Johnathan Archer of the starship Enterprise. We were told you have had some experience with temporal anomalies and that you could help us out."

"I have run into one that sent me 10,000 years into the future after a solar flare interfered with the Stargate wormhole." Archer and his crew all raised eyebrows as the same question buzzed through their heads.

"If I may ask, what exactly is a Stargate?" The silence had returned for another moment before Sheppard broke it.

"Wow, Schumer was right. You are strange. You haven't heard of us, the Tau'ri, which, while rare, is still slightly believable but the fact that you haven't heard of the Stargate makes it almost impossible to believe. What planet are you from exactly?"

"Most of my crew are humans from the planet Earth while I have one Vulcan and one Denobulan on board. Where are you from?" Travis turned the ship with what little power he had so that they would be facing the Prometheus. The ship was an odd design as it didn't share the aerodynamic figure of other starships that Maywhether had seen before. He could also see some other similarly designed vessels slowing down as they approached the battered and beaten Starfleet vessel.

"I believe you are mistaken as to where you are from. The only vessel named Enterprise that I know of is the carrier that is currently in orbit of Earth as part of the defense fleet. There is also no record of an alien species called Vulcan or Denobulan anywhere in the Milky Way."

"How can you possibly know that?" Archer asked slightly frustrated.

"I looked in our database Captain. No planet within Tau'ri borders is called by those names and no other planets that aren't under our control share those names either. Neither the Asgard nor the race we call the Ancients ever had a planet named Vulcan or Denobula," Sheppard explained calmly hoping to ease the growing tension.

"Is it possibly that you haven't run across either planet yet?"

"That's highly unlikely. While the Tau'ri only control about twenty-five percent of the Milky Way, the rest is controlled by the other powers and we all share star charts, for the most part. Ours are a bit more complete, however, as we gained maps from the Asgard and Ancient races. Both races had completely charted the Milky Way so finding a planet here that isn't on our charts is almost impossible." Archer's head was spinning. He figured there was a chance that General Sheppard was lying entirely yet Archer could tell he wasn't by how strongly his words were spoken. He was trying to figure out what was happening when T'pol raised her voice

"Captain, if I may, I believe I have a theory. It is entirely possible, due to current evidence, that we are in what humanity calls a parallel universe. A universe that took a much more drastic turn than our own and evolved in its own way. I believe we are talking with humans from this universe's Earth," she explained. Archer's eyebrows rose. He has seen time travel before with Crewman Daniels but an entirely different universe where humanity has already settled in the stars almost a century before his deep space exploration mission. He returned his gaze to the view screen to see the Tau'ri starships sitting idle right in front of his ship as he heard General Sheppard speak.

"I also have experience with universe hopping if that helps, but I suggest we place all of this on hold. According to our readings your ship is heavily damaged and we are not that far away from the Valhalla Dockyard. Give me a moment to speak with General Carter at Earth to explain the situation and send a message to Pegasus explaining my delay." The line cut out with a small click and it gave everyone the opportunity to process this new information. They were in the past in a different universe. There was no training for the situation they were in and they were already pretty unprepared when it came to their mission to find the Xindi and that was made obvious by the state of the Enterprise.

Archer himself actually needed to sit down in his chair to ponder about this new information. He was wondering about what opportunities this could present, but then a worrying thought came up. One that chilled him down to the bone.

How would they get home?

 **Author's Note** **I apologize for how late this chapter is. I meant to finish this sooner but the end of the school year has been frantic. Thank you for your patience. I stated last chapter that I would be using ship designs from another story. Please note this is NOT a sequel or spin-off of that story and I will have my own twists as with the _Daedalus II_ class starships. Thank you for reading and have a good day.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 04

Needless to say, this is not how General Sheppard expected his day to go. He thought that it would be a quiet couple of weeks until he finally returned home to his wife and son in the Pegasus galaxy. Now he had to deal with yet another multiverse hopping starship. Although he rather enjoys the deviation from the norm, now there was going to be a lot of paperwork to do. Sheppard turned to the communications officer and ordered a channel be opened towards Tau'ri Command on Earth.

A few moments later, the face of one of his old commanding officers came up on the viewscreen. Her blonde locks having grown some grey from stress of running the Tau'ri Research Teams and some from her time as a member of the infamous SG-1 Team led by Colonel Jack O'neill in the early days of Stargate exploration. He gave her a smile that signified that something had gone wrong.

"What has happened this time?" General Samantha Carter asked, annoyance laced through her words.

"We have yet another trans-universal starship out here on the edge of Milky-Way. They are heavily damaged and have wounded aboard," Sheppard explained. Carter's eyebrows rose in surprise as it's been many years since the last Multiverse Event. The last one was when an alternate version of the Daedalus appeared over the city-ship Atlantis.

"What do we know so far?" Carter asked. Sheppard took a moment to gather his thoughts before replying.

"The task force was about to leave the Milky Way galaxy on its way to Atlantis when the sensors aboard the Achilles detected a spacial anomaly. We diverted from the path and came out of FTL several thousand kilometers away from the anomaly. Admiral Caldwell ordered the Prometheus to get closer to investigate. Soon after a new vessel came out of the anomaly with extensive damage. Some of it older but some so recent that I would have to say the ship just got out of combat at the time." Sheppard turned to the comm officer and nodded his head. A second later, an image of the new starship appeared on Carter's monitor.

"Interesting design. I can't tell what type of FTL they might use but that ship doesn't appear to have the capability to create spacial anomalies," Carter thought aloud. Sheppard began his explanation once again.

"The crew is made up of mostly humans with two aliens on board. I believe they were called a Vulcan and a Denobulan respectively. They are apparently from another version of Earth, but that isn't even the best part. They have apparently travelled backward in time as well as the captain of that ship, Captain Johnathan Archer, stated that it wouldn't be their first time doing so." Carter leaned into the back of her seat with a face of thought. A few moments of silence pass before she sits upright again.

"What do you propose we do about this?"

"I told the captain that we can help repair his vessel and that we will help him get back to his time and universe."

"You promised a stranger that we would help them without consulting any higher ups?" Carter asked with authority.

"I figured my rank had to prove for something," Sheppard stated.

"In Pegasus it does but in this galaxy I am in command. Lucky for you, I most likely would have made the same call. Tow them to Valhalla then have them dock, but there are to be no repairs made on our part until this captain and I have a chat. Is that understood General?" Carter ordered.

"Perfectly General. I shall see you soon. Sheppard out," he said as he cut the line. He ordered the comm officer to reopen a line with the Enterprise once again and a picture of the dust covered Captain Archer sitting in his command chair came up.

"Good news Captain. We are prepared to tow you to Valhalla Dockyard, however the GPF of Milky Way wishes to meet with you before we can help with repairs to your ship," Sheppard explained. Archer looked confused.

"And who exactly is this GPF?" he asked.

"General of Planetary Forces Carter has complete command of all ground forces within Milky Way with her only superiors being in the highest levels of the Tau'ri government. She will be waiting for us at Valhalla to speak with us. Now is your ship currently able to withstand being towed at FTL speeds?" Sheppard questioned. Archer turned to his pointy-eared science officer.

"I believe we do have the structural capability however the deflector dish is out of commission and without it we run the risk of being damaged by spacial debris," she explained. Sheppard quickly spoke up.

"We can have the Prometheus expand its shield to encompass your ship and keep it safe until we arrive. We commonly use the shield to keep subspace radiation from harming crewmen. Be ready for a tow captain," Sheppard finished. Archer nodded his head before the line went out. A new line was immediately opened to the Prometheus and Captain Shumer.

"We are ready to tow at your command, sir," Shumer stated. Sheppard waited a moment to give the Enterprise time to prepare before giving the go ahead.

(Line Break)

"Captain, are you sure this is the wisest course of action? We know next to nothing of these people and their culture," T'pol questioned.

"From where I see it we have no other alternative. We are stranded in another Universe and the first people we have met seem to be friendly enough. I'm not going to give the Enterprise up nor have I forgotten our mission, but we are stranded and low on supplies. I believe it is time we ask for a little bit of help," Archer finished.

"Aye, Captain." Archer turned to Maywhether.

"Travis get us ready for tow."

"Aye, sir." Working quickly, Maywhether aligned the ship behind the Prometheus before a blue stream of energy erupted from the aft side of the Tau'ri vessel. Then a bubble formed around the two ships before the rest of Tau'ri fleet took up positions. To Archer's surprise, what looked like a portal opened up in front of the Prometheus before both ship accelerated into it.

All that was left behind was a few pieces of debris that had come off the Enterprise and empty space for as far as the eye could see.

 **(Author's Note) I am truly sorry for the timing of this one. I ran into a nasty case of writer's block and I hope I can be forgiven. Here is the next chapter and, as usual, comments are welcome but no flames please. Constructive criticism only. Thank you.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 05**

As soon as the _Enterprise_ entered the foreign type of FTL, T'pol began using what little sensors she had to get as many readings as possible. What she was finding was so intriguing to her that she didn't hear her Captain's question until he had walked up to her station.

"T'pol? Is everything alright?" Archer asked. Said Vulcan looked up from the monitor with slight surprise though was able to quickly hide it before she began reporting on her findings.

"Yes Captain. I was just running over the reading our sensors have been receiving from the Tau'ri's version of FTL. It is quite impressive. It seems that their FTL travels directly through subspace at speeds that make the warp drive quite impractical. We have travelled far enough that at our current point, it would take us several days at warp 4.5, to get to the point we are now. Yet we have only been in FTL for a few minutes," she explained Archer seemed slightly unnerved by that information but also slightly intrigued.

"Impressive but before we go too far into that," he turned to the rest of the bridge crew, "I want all senior officers up here to report on damage and repair abilities. I think we also need to explain current events to Phlox and Trip so get them up here quickly Hoshi." The named comm officer nodded her head before turning toward her control panel and sending out the orders.

 **(Line Break)**

"Let me get this straight," Charles "Trip" Tucker III started, "we are in an entirely different universe and we have already met this universe's version of humanity who is ahead of us in technology though they are century behind us in history and they have already agreed to meet with us and help us out?"

"They haven't agreed to help us just yet. We are going to meet their military commander of this galaxy to speak with them about helping us. Before we get any farther into this, I want a report on how we are doing. You first Trip," Archer ordered. Trip was silent for a moment before speaking up.

"We still have several blown out EPS relays all throughout the ship as well as several damaged plasma injectors. We have barely enough materials to get the relays online and to fabricate new injectors but just barely. Impulse engines are fairly alright as long as you don't push them too hard and we should have the maneuvering thrusters up to at least fifty percent power but no more than that. Warp drive is another matter. My team barely had it working at all after the Xindi attacked us and now it is gone entirely. There are too many damaged warp coils to bypass and we don't have the necessary supplies to build new ones. Unless these Tau'ri help us or have a shipyard waiting for us, we are stuck at impulse power," Trip finished. The mood in the room darkened with the news. The loss of warp speed was a damaging blow for the crew. T'pol took the silence as a chance to begin her report.

"Sensors are heavily damaged but still barely functional. I am working to repair what I can but there is almost no resources to replace what is damaged. I am also running constant scans on the Tau'ri FTL to see if there is a way to mimic it using our own warp core. I doubt it could work but I am running scans just in case," she finished. Archer nodded his head before turning to Lt. Reed.

"Well we've managed to bring one of the forward phase cannons back online, but it only has about twelve percent its maximum output. The forward launchers are almost ready as well but no aft weapons to speak of. Hull plating is shot but i can give you twenty-eight percent. We just don't have the resources to carry out any other repairs," he finished glumly. Phlox spoke next.

"We didn't have any deaths however we do have several severe plasma burn cases that I will be looking after. Luckily I still have plenty of supplies in sickbay to treat the entire crew." Some perked up a bit at that information as it was a bit of good news to hear.

"Alright. So our main problem as of right now is a shortage of replacement parts and supplies. How are we doing on food?" Archer asked openly so anyone could answer.

"We still have plenty of rations to go around for another few months. Water isn't an issue either as the reclamation system is still relatively untouched. Though some of the piping in the ship is broken down so some may go without showers for a few days," Trip stated. Archer nodded his head but remained silent for a moment to think over the information.

"Focus repairs on engineering and tactical. If there are any spare parts that could be used elsewhere after repairs are complete, share them. I want sensors up and running directly after the engines and weapons are back online. Phlox take care of your patients, and if you need an extra hand, don't hesitate to call on anyone on the crew. That includes me as well. Dismissed." The senior staff of the battered _NX-01_ parted ways to continue what repairs could be made to the ship. Archer stayed standing at the monitor table for a while longer.

He was trying to think about what meeting this General of Planetary Forces Carter would be like, and what he would say to try and get help for his weary ship and crew. Speaking of, right at that moment someone on the next deck was trying to clear one of the hallways of debris when a large chunk of metal fell from the wall. The loud screech as it ripped apart and the loud bang the metal made as it hit the floor gave a chill to Captain Archer.

It sounded as though the _Enterprise_ was crying out. Crying out in pain.

 _Author's Note: I realize it has been quite a while since the last chapter and that this one is short, however life has really slapped me in the face recently with situations that I am not comfortable sharing openly at the moment. Nonetheless I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter and forgive me for my tardiness._


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 06**

Over an hour and a half had passed since the Tau'ri started towing the trans-universal starship. Sensors on the _Prometheus_ showed that the ship was ever so slowly coming back together as her weary crew did their absolute best to bring her back from the brink of death. Even visibly, she was improving as the lights that lit up her designation stopped flickering thanks to power being directly restored to all external and internal lights.

Thanks to the shield from the _Prometheus_ , some of the crew was actually able to make some external repairs as well. The armor plating that covered the impulse engines, bridge, and sensor dome was all being replaced with fresher armor. Other areas just had minor repairs done to electrical systems and piping. Understandable as it seemed to Captain Shumer that some truly needed a fresh shower on the _NX-01._

"How much longer until we reach Valhalla?" he asked his pilot.

"We should arrive within ten minutes, sir," the pilot stated. Shumer nodded his head before turning toward his comm officer.

"Send a message to the _Enterprise_. We will be arriving at Valhalla within ten minutes and we recommend that her crewmen working on their hull be inside the ship for exit. We are lucky that they can stand out there with the shield up. I don't want to see what happens when we rapidly decelerate," he finished.

"Aye sir," she confirmed before she turned to her console to send the message.

 **(Line Break)**

"Sir I'm receiving a message from the _Prometheus_ Captain. They are telling us that we are ten minutes from Valhalla and that we should pull all of our external work crews back inside," Hoshi relayed.

"Alright. Tell our crews to stop what they are doing and get back inside the ship. I don't want to lose anyone in another universe," Archer states before pressing a button on his command chair. "Trip, can we use the impulse engines?"

"Only up to three-quarter power. If you try to go to full power, I can't guarantee the engines won't either overload and blow or just shut down permanently," Trip warned.

"I'll take that under advisement. Archer out," Archer said before pressing the same button again. He gave out a sigh before turning back to Maywhether. "Be ready to fly Mr. Maywhether. I don't want to be carried the whole way into the docks."

"Roger that sir," Maywhether confirmed. It was an agonizing ten minutes as the bridge crew waited to see what planet the Tau'ri had called Valhalla. The work crews from the hull had quickly returned to the interior of the ship after they were given notice. Seems that they were ready to get back inside at any moment. Once the ten minutes were almost up, T'pol's sensors picked up an energy burst and a dramatic speed decrease. They came out of their blue tunnel to a planet that looked similar to their Earth without the scars of history.

 **(Line Break)**

To General of Planetary Forces Samantha Carter, the wait for the trans-universal ship was agonizing. Most of the other multiverse events that the old Stargate program had run into weren't quite friendly with the most recent being a Super-Hive ship from the Pegasus galaxy getting the coordinates of Earth from a Wraith in a different universe. She was hoping beyond hope, even though being a scientist generally meant she didn't believe in things like that, that this event would go a lot better than those other events.

She was watching out of one of the many windows available on _Valhalla One_ , the first self defense station that was built in orbit of the planet, for the new craft. As she waited, she could see the civilian trade vessels that ferried cargo to and from the colonized Tau'ri worlds. She could also see _Valhallas 23_ and _24_ still under construction.

All of the other colonies only carried twelve self defence stations however every Capital planet, such as Earth and Langara, received twenty-four. Valhalla was an exception to that rule as it was the first planet that the Tau'ri colonized under a united planet Earth. As such, it was a major target for any Lucian Alliance members who thought they were big enough to go after the Tau'ri.

Carter was thinking of the several skirmishes that have occurred between the Alliance and the Tau'ri when a larger blue portal appeared signifying the arrival of a large fleet of ships. Then the battlegroup that was supposed to return to Pegasus came shooting out of the portal with an extra vessel in tow.

From what the GPF could see, it was heavily damaged from combat. On the starboard side cylinder there was a dome that was flashing red however it's port side brother was dead black. Many holes could be seen all over the ship from energy weapon strikes. Burn marks show where the weapons couldn't quite make it through the hull. She could only imagine how many lives have been lost from such an attack. Especially since scans showed only a small number of people on board when it came through the anomaly.

Through all the damage and grime, however, she could see a beautiful work of art that most likely made its creators and crew proud. She hoped that she may be able to see it fully operational if things went well. She was trying to imagine how the _NX-01_ would look without all of the damage when her aide walked up to her.

"General Carter, ma'am? General Sheppard wishes for permission to join us on the station with a few members of the damaged ship's senior officers," she stated.

"They have permission to come aboard. Have a small security team waiting as a precaution. Only two men should do," Carter ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am!" the aide announced and saluted before heading off to follow her orders. Carter returned her imagination's eye on the new ship one last time before turning to meet her new guests.

 **(Line Break)**

"Shuttlepod One, you are cleared to enter the bay," the flight control officer said as Archer slowly inched the small craft into the much larger hangar bay. He wasn't expecting to see people walking around the bay without space suits of some type but soon broke out of his surprise as force field technology was most likely going to be on the short end of the list of scientific wonders to be found within the Tau'ri vessel.

The craft approached its designated landing area and set down. With a whine, its nuclear engines shut down and Archer turned to his small team that consisted of himself, T'pol, Trip, and Phlox.

"Let's go meet the Tau'ri," he said before opening the port side hatch to the hangar bay. He and his team were met by two armed guards with helmets too dark to see inside of but Archer guessed they could see quite well. A bit a ways was two gentlemen in what looked like dress uniforms. The one on the left was Bald and carried a navy blue uniform with many honors to be found all over his jacket. The other looked a tad younger with salt and pepper hair and sporting a dark green uniform with even more honors than the first. The only similarity Archer could find between the two men was a single pin on their collars. It was a silver pegasus with its wings spread, ready to take flight.

"Captain Archer. My name is Admiral Caldwell of the Pegasus Naval Tau'ri Forces," the bald man, Admiral Calwell, stated before motioning towards the other officer. "This is General Sheppard of Pegasus Army Tau'ri Forces. Welcome aboard the _Achilles,_ ". Archer took a moment before responding.

"Hello and thank you on behalf of my crew for assisting us when you did. It is a pleasure to meet humans from another reality altogether," Archer said before walking up to the two men and shaking their hands. He turned to face his crew and began his own introductions. "This is Charles Tucker III, however we call him Trip," he said pointing to the man who moved to shake the Tau'ri's hands.

"This is my Science Officer and second in command T'pol from Vulcan, he said pointing to his pointy-eared commander. She shook their hands as well before Archer motioned towards the last member of his away team whom had smile on his face despite how tired he looked.

"And this is Dr. Phlox from the planet Denobula. He is my ship's doctor," Archer finished as the Denobulan shook hands with the two men. After shaking hand the man identified as General Sheppard spoke up.

"It is a pleasure to meet all of you face to face. As much as I believe Admiral Caldwell would enjoy first contact taking place on his flagship, I'm afraid that we will have to transport over towards _Valhalla One_ where GPF Samantha Carter would like a word with you about maybe repairing your vessel and getting you back home as you are on a time limit if I remember correctly. Maybe we can have a trade of technologies to go along with it all," he said with a small grin. Archer noticed that the smirk wasn't malicious, it was just part of the General's charm.

"That would be fine just allow me to contact my ship to notify them of my location change," Archer said.

"Of course. Take all the time you need. Just notify us when you are ready." Archer nodded his head before pulling out his communicator from his left bicep pocket. After making the call, he placed the small device back inside its pocket and turned toward the two officers.

"Ready to go when you are," he said. General Sheppard nodded his head before pulling out his own version of the communicator, but before he made a call he turned toward Archer.

"Are you all ok with using beaming technology to get to _V1_? It would be quicker than using one of our shuttlecraft," he asked.

"We have beaming technology of our own so we are quite fine with it. All I ask is that our shuttle remains untouched while we are gone," Archer requested.

"Not a problem," Sheppard said before turning toward his communicator and saying, "Beam us out." In a bright flash the six people were gone without a trace. The only thing that said that something was out of the ordinary was a single shuttle that now sat behind a large force field so that it would remain untouched until its owners returned. However long or short that wait might be.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 07**

Six beams of light lit up the conference room for a moment before six new figures joined the two already in the Tau'ri conference room. GPF Carter and her aide now stood before General Sheppard, Admiral Calwell, as well as Jonathan Archer, Charles Tucker III, T'pol, and Dr. Phlox from the _Enterprise_. Carter took a moment to study the new arrivals, especially the two new aliens, before extending her hand toward Archer.

"Hello Captain Archer. I am the General of Planetary Forces Samantha Carter of the Milky Way and it is a pleasure to meet species from another universe," she welcomed with a smile. Just from her body language, Archer could tell he was dealing with an honest human being and not some idiot who is trying to gain more political power. He smiled an honest smile and grabbed her hand.

"Hello General. It is a pleasure to meet you as well," Archer said before reintroducing his away team to the GPF. Carter motioned towards the conference table where they all sat down. Carter then began to question their new guests.

"I noticed an intense amount of damage done to your ship Captain. I was wondering if you could tell us the story behind it all," she asked. Archer shifted slightly in his seat before taking a breath and opening his mouth to speak.

"I guess I'll start from when Earth was attacked," he said. This caught the attention of the three Tau'ri officers. They sat ever further in their seats in anticipation of this story. "The _Enterprise_ was several weeks away from Earth when a small alien probe appeared from a vortex over Earth. It fired a beam of energy that cut a swath from Florida to Venezuela, killing seven million people in total." Trip noticeably tensed up when Archer said this. Carter and the others figured that he must have lost someone dear to him in that attack, so they didn't ask about it.

All throughout the story, Carter, Sheppard, and Caldwell were surprised at the resourcefulness and dedication of the crew to do what they could to save Earth. Their story was odd at times, however it wasn't too far fetched as all three Tau'ri officers had seen their fair share of oddities while working among the stars.

Archer stopped for a moment when it came to his attempted suicide run against the Xindi weapon and his ship was attacked by a large amount of Xindi starships. He continued to tell how many people were lost during that battle. T'pol temporarily looked away from everyone for a moment as well as Phlox. They were saddened by how many were lost. Archer finished with telling how he came across the Tau'ri task force.

"The rest I suspect you know." Archer finished. There was silence for several minutes as everyone took in the information. Even the _Enterprise_ crew was silent as this was the first safe moment that they could truly let their situation sink in. Sheppard stood up after a few moments and spoke.

"Captain, there are no words for how incredibly strong you and your crew has been." He then stood to full attention and saluted Archer. "I am quite honored to meet you sir.

"Thank you for the praise but I believe the praise goes to those who will never make it back home. In any case let us get to what this meeting was supposed to be about," Archer said as Sheppard sat back down.

"Agreed. After hearing your story, I do believe we could help you out, however we can't just repair your ship and send you on your way. The higher ups wouldn't agree to it unless there was something to gain from it. How about a technological trade? A trade of technologies could allow for both sides to advance a bit and some of our tech could give you an edge for when you return to your mission," Carter stated.

"It would be nice however we do have a time limit to return. We have to meet the Xindi Degra at specific coordinates or else Earth is doomed," Archer said with urgency. Caldwell spoke up.

"You travelled backwards in time as well through different universes. There may be a way to return you to a specific moment in your timeline when you return to your universe, but I'm no egg-head so we will have to check." Archer stared at the Admiral before speaking again.

"I guess that is all I can hope for as it will take a large amount of time and recourses to repair the ship enough to get back and by then, our deadline will have technically passed. If we may, can we return to our shuttle to pull up what technologies we would be willing to trade? As well as taking some scans of one of your vessels to see what would be good to offer." Archer bargained. Carter thought about it.

" That seems agreeable as long as we can do some more in-depth scans of your ship to see what we could offer in return."

"Thank you. Can we get a beam back to the _Achilles_ Admiral?" Archer asked as he and his team stood up from the table.

"Of course, just step over here please." After the five others had left, Carter turned towards her old friend.

"John what do you think about all this?" she asked.

"I think these people have gone through more than could be asked of them and then some. I would like to help them right now, and even upgrade their ship for them but I know that I would most likely get chewed out for not going through proper channels," Sheppard said. Carter chuckled as she figured that John would want to help out these people no matter what. She did too but she had to follow protocol, as much as she detested it.

"I think we could possibly give them some of our older tech like the gear we had on the old _Daedalus I_ class ships. The shields, beam weapons, Tolan Ion guns, and crystal circuitry of those ships are heavily outdated compared to what we have now so the government officials may go for that as long as Archer could compensate for it," Carter thought aloud.

"I think that would be best. I'll contact the President to see if we can get an official down here to help with the negotiations. You get your aide to pull up the list of tech from that era so Archer could look it over," Sheppard stated before leaving the room to make the call. Carter ordered her aide to make out the list of technologies to look over.

 **(Line Break)**

As soon as they were all back within the shuttle, Archer and his team went over what had been discussed. Then Archer began giving his orders.

"Trip. I want you to get a readout of the entire ship and put it on a PADD for the Tau'ri to look over."

"The entire ship? Are you sure that is wise Cap'n?" Trip asked.

"We don't have a choice. We need these people's help and they can most likely scan our entire vessel anyway. At least giving them a complete readout would look good to a negotiator. Phlox can you make a list of medical supplies we could trade and what supplies you may need?" Archer continued. Phlox looked thoughtful for a moment before returning Archer's gaze.

"I should be able to pull up something on a PADD quickly," he said before getting to work. Finally, the Captain turned towards his second-in-command.

"Can you get a good scan of these vessels with what sensors we have left?" He asked the Vulcan.

"I should be able to get a clearer scan as soon as we return to the _Enterprise_. I shall give you a report on what I find within the hour." Archer nodded his head before stepping outside the shuttle to speak with Caldwell.

"With your permission, we'd like to return to our ship to get what we need. We should return within the hour." Caldwell nodded his head.

"Of course. It will take just about as long to get an actual diplomat out here for the negotiations anyway. You are all cleared to disembark Captain," Caldwell said as he saluted then walked away to give the shuttle room to take off. Archer returned to the pilot's chair of the shuttle as the hatch sealed and the engine started up. The craft slowly made it way out of the massive hangar and towards the _NX-01_.

True to her word, as soon as they had returned, T'pol began to take deep scans of the Tau'ri vessel _Achilles_ and the other surrounding craft. What she found truly amazed her. Crystalline circuitry that outperformed anything that any species had on their ships. Shields powerful enough that they could likely take the brunt of a coronal mass ejection and barely be scratched. She was extremely pleased because if they could get even the original forms of all of this technology, _Enterprise_ would more than stand a chance against anything the Xindi races could throw at them.

All of her internal excitement was suddenly halted however. The scanners had finished picking up what made up the hulls of the Tau'ri vessels, and it identified part of the metal as something she would readily admit she had a new fear of. The hulls of the Tau'ri vessels were made up in part by what the computer identified as Trellium. The mineral that almost made T'pol crazy enough to attack her own captain, and that had cost the lives of the entire crew of the Vulcan exploration ship _Seleya._

 **Author's Note: I hope you all are enjoying the quicker chapters. I have found a lot of extra time to write so I've taken advantage of that. Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome, but flames are not. Thank you for the patience everyone and I hope you have a good weekend. We'll just have to see if I type up another chapter tomorrow.**

 **-D'terran**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 08**

T'pol was confused. How had the mineral not start to affect her the same way it did when they were in the asteroid belt on the _Seleya_? She took as many scans as she could until Archer had ordered the away team back down to the shuttle bay to return to the Tau'ri ship. T'pol was the last to arrive and everyone noticed that the Vulcan seemed to be worried about something so Trip decided to speak up.

"T'pol? You alright?" he asked T'pol looked past him toward the captain then spoke up.

"I managed to take a great deal of scans on the Tau'ri ship and made quite a few discoveries about their technologies. There was one thing that is worrying however. The hull of the _Achilles_ and likely other Tau'ri vessels is made up of a trinium and trellium alloy," she said. That made everyone's eyes widen. Phlox pulled out his medical scanner and used it on T'pol.

"I don't see any signs of neural decay on your brain. I wonder why you weren't affected the same way as you were in the asteroid field?" Phlox announced.

"It may have something to do with the way they refine it or how they merge it with trinium to make the alloy. We will have to ask about it when we meet them again. Phlox I want you to periodically monitor T'pol. I don't want another _Seleya_ incident," Archer ordered. They away team stepped back into the shuttle and launched. As soon as the shuttle cleared the _Enterprise_ , two Tau'ri _Eagle_ fighters met up on the shuttle's flanks to escort the ship towards _Valhalla One_.

 **(Line Break)**

General Carter watched along with senator Woolsy as the _NX-01_ 's shuttle settled on the ground. The small atmospheric wings retracted into the hull and the port-side hatch opened with a hiss. One by one, the small away team stepped out of the shuttle and moved toward Carter and the yet unknown to them, partially bald, man.

"Hello again Captain. I would like to introduce you to Senator Woolsy of the Tau'ri. He is here to speak for the government on a trade agreement," Carter introduced. Woolsy stepped forward and shook Archer's hand.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Captain. I hope that we can reach a deal quickly that will benefit us both," Woolsy said.

"I hope so too. We need to return swiftly so that our Earth can be saved from the Xindi weapon," Archer stated.

"Yes, General Carter informed me about your current predicament. Let us return to the conference room so that we may get this deal done with quickly." Several hours were spent in the conference room over what goods and services could be traded between both sides. Every half-hour, Phlox would scan T'pol to check on her and was surprised to find that there was still no neural decay to be found.

Finally they got to the point of conversation regarding the repair and upgrade of the _Enterprise_.

"In trade for the torpedo designs, phase cannon designs, life-support equipment, anti-matter generation schematics, hull polarization, and some personnel to teach us about how to use each different technology, the Tau'ri is willing to trade some of our original technologies that could be found on our old _Daedalus I_ class cruisers.

Such technologies include Asgard sensors, Asgard plasma-beam weapons, the older ion propulsion engines, which could push our vessels to three quarters of the speed of light, crystalline circuitry, the earliest form of the Asgard shield grid, and the naquada-trinium alloy hull. We will also be giving you a Goa'uld interplanetary hyperdrive, and we would be willing to help repair and retrofit the _Starship Enterprise_ with all of these technologies and teach you how to use them," Woolsy listed out. Archer was completely flabbergasted. The amount of technology and work the Tau'ri was willing to give up just for his mission to be completed was astounding. And if all of this was the earliest form of their current technology, he didn't want to see what the Tau'ri fleet could do to a full Vulcan or Andorian battle group.

"I am thankful for all of the help you are willing to give us. We do have one problem, however. The element you call naquada, or as we call it trellium, has an effect on Vulcans that deteriorates their neural pathways over time. We were wondering how you refined it and combined it with trinium so that we may refine our own. As you can see, T'pol, as a Vulcan, has had no neural deterioration ever since we have stepped on your ships so we would like to know how you did it," Archer explained. Woolsy leaned backwards in his chair as did Carter. This was not what they were expecting the negotiations to turn to but it wasn't the worst way they could've gone.

"We will gladly give you our forging methods as well along with the armor alloy. You may run whatever tests you want on the process and supplies. Now for your crew. I spoke with a friend of mine, Dr. Frasier, who works in the medical field and I think Dr. Phlox would agree with her statement that your crew may need some away time. Not enough that we would have an _H.M.S. Bounty_ mutiny occur but enough for them to relax a little bit. There are several locations on Valhalla and on Earth that they may visit if they so please. Under supervision of course," Woolsy explained. Archer looked to his Denobulan crewmember to see Phlox nod his head in agreement.

"Alright then, it looks like a deal. All my ship needs now is a safe dock and I need to speak with her crew. Then we can get this started. Thank you for everything," Archer said as he stood up and offered his hand to Woolsy and Carter. After shaking hands, Both parties departed to get their respective subordinates ready to work. Archer walked onto the bridge of the _Enterprise_ as Hoshi was listening to a message from the Tau'ri. She spoke up when she saw Archer.

"Captain, we are receiving instructions to dock from the Tau'ri, sir," she relayed.

"Alright. Put it on speakers. Mr. Maywhether, take us in."

"Aye sir," Maywhether said before turning back to his console. The Tau'ri's message could suddenly be heard on the speakers.

" _Enterprise_ , this is _Valhalla Orbital Control_. Turn to heading 290 mark 132 towards orbital dock _V-06_ at your quarter impulse speed. Be prepared to shut down engines and hold for docking measures," the operator said. Maywhether entered the proper heading before responding.

"Heading 290 mark 132 at quarter speed, aye." The _Enterprise's_ blue impulse engines flared as they tried to push the small ship forward. The maneuvering thrusters aimed the ship at its new heading and the ship started moving. Members of the crew could hear parts of the structure that are damaged or only had a quick patch job groaning under the power of the engines. Slowly, the ship made its way to the orbital repair yard.

Normally, Tau'ri ships were constructed on the planet and that is why the ships were so quickly launched. The repair yards were built for repairs and retrofits for ships in orbit. That way the maximum number of ships could always be under construction at any point.

Maywhether was having flashbacks of the automated station from before the Xindi attack as he approached the brightly lit station. It looked similar to the orbital stations over Earth like the one that was building the _NX-02 Columbia_. Brightly lit, Travis could see the multiple cargo arms that ferried parts to any ship in the dock. He was distracted from his piloting when the same Tau'ri from earlier spoke up.

" _Enterprise_ , shut down engines and maneuvering thrusters. We will be tractoring you into the bay. Prepare to receive the docking tube on your starboard side and we will be sending over teams to help with repairs and retrofits," he said. Travis followed the directions and shut down the engines and thrusters. A blue light shone onto the starship and it started moving once again. Once the ship met a certain point, the beam shut down and docking arms extended to the hull. With a dull thud, the _Enterprise NX-01_ was now docked for an unforeseeable amount of time.

 **(Line Break)**

As soon as the starboard hatch opened, Tau'ri work crews in dark green jump suits with large amounts of equipment and tools were met with the camo uniforms of the starship's _MACO's_ and one chief engineer.

"Alright, I have had my crews set aside one of our cargo bays so that you guys can get to work with us. For now, it will just be clean up operations until I can get us some retrofit plans from your bosses. Now, these guys will show you to the bay, I have to go speak with your superiors," Trip ordered. Work crews from the starship and the orbital docks worked days and nights to clear out the debri and to set up work light all throughout the ship. Meanwhile, Archer and Trip were constantly talking with Dr. Rodney Mckay on the redesigns for the _Enterprise_. They were constantly in talks with the artificial lifeform version of the Asgard Thor.

Though the Asgard race committed mass suicide, they had left an artificial implant of all of their subconscious minds in the data core given to the old Tau'ri flagship, the _USAF Odyssey._ Later, the Tau'ri were able to use nanites to reconstruct bodies for the Asgard in order to save them. Now the Asgard, though more experienced in intergalactic affairs, are now considered to be part of the Tau'ri. Thor himself was quite interested in the starship from another universe, that he has been studying the ship to see about upgrading it with the old Tau'ri technology.

"There is not enough room on board the vessel without sacrificing crew capacity to install all the new systems. There is another option than the loss of crew capacity, if you wish to hear it Jonathan Archer," Thor requested. Archer didn't want to modify his ship more than needed so he made his decision.

"I would like to hear the second option Thor," he said. Thor nodded his head before pulling up a new schematic over the old _Enterprise._ The modifications that Archer could see were extensive and surprising for several reasons. It added an entirely new, secondary hull to the bottom of the ship connected by a neck where the old shuttlepod bay was and two pylons that extended from below where the original nacelle pylons were by the engines.

"I surmised that you would likely want to keep your warp drive technology just in case of an emergency, and we know that your father passed away before his work on the engine could be finished therefore we know it has sentimental value as well, so I moved the warp core down into this new secondary hull along with several other pieces of technology. I have also managed to increase your warp drive efficiency to the point that you could reach what you call warp six point seven nine. The extra hull strength should allow you to reach these speeds safely and the inertial dampeners will absorb any extra shock that may occur when entering warp or hyperspace travel," Thor explained. Archer took this into account. If he goes with this decision, it could take a lot longer to upgrade the ship before they can head back to stop the Xindi.

"How long will the repairs take compared to the retrofit," Archer asked. Thor had an immediate answer.

"The repairs will take a week with the construction nanites and the entire retrofit will take three weeks with the nanites. Training for the new equipment will take about another week. Two if you want to be sure that your crew understands the new technologies with the capacities to repair them in case of an emergency." Archer looked down at the floor in thought. He would want his crew to be prepared so it was either five weeks or a single week. Then Carter spoke up.

"The extra time would allow for our scientists to properly study the anomaly that brought you here so that we can send you back at the proper time. Otherwise we may send you a few years too early or too late and I don't think you want that kind of time," she said. Taking that into account, Archer made up his mind a whole lot quicker.

 _ **Author's Note:**_

 _ **I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome. Have a good day.**_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 09**

"I want your word that _Enterprise_ will keep her warp drive. I will not agree to any major structural changes if the warp drive is removed," Archer stated. He looked the strange grey creature straight in the eyes. Archer would not allow his father's work to simply vanish in an upgrade like this. He could still find uses for the warp drive as well in different situations than just travelling straight through subspace.

"I give you my word as a supreme commander of the Asgard, the warp drive will only be upgraded and not removed. If you wish to remove it, you may ask to do so or you can do it when you return to your universe," Thor stated. Archer let out a small sigh. It was the best response he was going to get.

"Alright then. I agree to these upgrades and the retrofit. I would like to personally oversee the entire refit as well," Archer replied.

"We thought you might. We have ambassadorial guest quarters set aside and ready for you when you wish to rest. It has a view over the repair yard so you can always watch the refit when you are there. Now, the main refit will be using both humans and nanobots to complete. This will lower the amount of time needed to complete the ship. As well, we will have an equal amount of day and night shift personnel so that the refit doesn't have any slow-downs while in production. Unless anyone has any questions, I will have my aide take you to your quarters Captain Archer," General Carter asked aloud. No one spoke up so Carter ordered her aide to take Archer to his room.

Upon arriving, the aide swiped her hand across a control panel which opened the sliding, metal door. Inside, Archer found a large bed with comfortable looking sheets and pillows in one corner and a large desk with a computer in the opposite corner. A door could be seen on the other end of the room from where Archer was standing where he guessed the restroom and shower was. A large window was also to the left side where Archer could clearly see the port side of his ship with work crews doing their very best to repair systems and begin ripping off some of the hull plating to be replaced by the new armor. It hurt Archer that he had to see his lovely ship in such a state, but he was quite relieved that she was getting the care that she so desperately deserved.

"I have some other duties to attend to so if you have any questions, I can answer several quickly before I have to leave," the aide stated. Archer was slightly disappointed in himself as he never got the name of the aide and has just been referring to her as "The Aide."

"I just have one question. What is your name? I never got it while we were talking with Woolsey and General Carter," he asked her. She seemed surprised at the question but quickly righted herself.

"I am Lt. Natalie Hopman sir. It has been a pleasure to meet you and your crew, but I have some business to attend to so if you need anything, just grab one of the guards at the end of the hall. They are your security detachment just in case we come under attack as well, but don't worry, only one of them has to be with you at any one point. Good day Captain," Lt. Hopman stated before turning to leave. As the door shut, Archer sat in the chair at the desk and stared out the window, wondering just what his ship was going to look like when the next month had finally passed by.

 **(Line Break)**

Just over a week had gone passed ever since the _Enterprise_ had begun refitting. After just two days the ship's crew was ordered to take at least three days shore leave before returning to continue the refit. Though this slowed the refit work a bit, it greatly helped the crew's morale and they returned with a new vigor. The refit was actually a day ahead of schedule after they returned and a rough framework of the new secondary hull was almost complete with components from the deflector array moved to the secondary hull so that the primary hull could be completely rounded off on the bow. This would help with travelling through warp speed.

Other sections of the primary hull were already cut away to modify them for use in the secondary hull as well. The warp governor that sat between the old nacelle pylons was removed and was going to be placed at the aft end of the secondary hull. As well, the shuttle bay has been cut in half with the two pod bays placed between the old impulse engine extensions, which now housed the beginnings of the new Ion engines, and the ventral doors have been removed to make room for the new secondary hull neck to be placed. The secondary hull was going to be detachable just in case the warp core started to go critical so that the entire ship wouldn't be destroyed and the crew stranded. The primary hull would house the new hyperdrive in the old engineering section so that the ship can use the hyperdrive if the warp drive goes offline and vice-versa.

All in all, the ship was coming along quite nicely. Archer was actually impressed with what had been completed in such a short amount of time. Though he was worried. It took months just to build one _NX_ class starship. It would now take even longer to get more built with the new technology and then there was the threat factor. Races like the Klingons would want to take this technology as soon as they heard about it and Earth wasn't ready to take on an empire. He would have to ask about getting construction nanobots or other construction methods that could help out Starfleet. Building on the ground was a brilliant idea that he would recommend to Admiral Forrest as soon as they returned.

Archer spent most of the past week also making his case for when he met the Xindi council. A sudden upgrade to the ship would make matters difficult but hopefully he would still be able to speak with the council and change their minds about attacking Earth and what the spheres are actually meant to do. He was pulled away from his thoughts when he heard a chime coming from his door.

"Come in," he said. The door opened to reveal General Sheppard in a flight jacket that had a patch on it that said his name but under it said _USAF Daedalus._

"Sorry for barging in but I wanted to tell you that I have to return to Pegasus and that I'm shoving off today," Sheppard said as he extended his hand with a smile. Archer returned both the smile and the handshake. "Give me a call if you are ever back in town alright?"

"I'll be sure to do just that General. Safe travels," Archer said before Sheppard turned to leave. As the door shut behind him Archer also thought about how he most likely would never see any of these people again. Though saddening as it is, he is content with how things have turned out here. All he could hope for was that his mission would be a success.

 **(Line Break)**

"Ma'am, Captain Archer would like to speak with you," Lt. Hopman announced. Carter raised an eyebrow as there was a meeting thirty minutes later that included both of them but what harm could be done with an early meet-up?

"Let him in then Natalie," Carter ordered. The mentioned Captain entered the room and sat in one of the chairs in front of the General's desk.

"General, I'd like to speak with you about another trade for technology. It took Starfleet months to construct a single _NX_ class starship. The second is still a month away from completion back home. I was wondering if we could trade something for the nanobot technology or at least something to increase our production capacities," Archer requested. Carter leaned back in her chair trying to think of something. The government will not allow the nanotechnology to go where the Tau'ri cannot monitor it as the technology was derived from the Replicators and it could present a problem if they go unmonitored.

Then she had an epiphany. They had their own version of the transporters. The ability to reassemble matter into something else would be a big boon to construction processes. It would allow for faster construction of supplies that could be used to build the new starships.

"Captain Archer, what about your transporters? They have the capacity to turn matter into something else that could be useful entirely. That is what we designed from our beaming technology. Perhaps we could work with you to create such a technology so that you can construct your ships faster as well as mine quicker as raw ore could easily be turned into their refined counterparts such as iron to steel and the like," Carter suggested. Archer was surprised.

"We have had several of our scientists trying to work on such technology but they have had minute success in that field last time we checked. Could this be done within the remaining refit time?" he asked.

"I don't know yet but I know just the person to look into it for us. Give me a moment," Carter said as she called for her aide. The lieutenant walked in a moment later to see what she was called for.

"Yes ma'am?"

"Natalie, call Valhalla Stargate Command. I need to send a message to Atlantis," Carter ordered. Natalie nodded her head before moving out the room. Archer had no idea what this Stargate Command was but he figured that it was some form of long range communication device. Though he was unsure as to why it needed a, "Command." A few seconds later, Carter had entered a message into her computer then sat and waited. Then Archer heard a voice.

"Yes Sam? As you can imagine I am quite busy here so make it quick," Archer heard the voice say.

"So you aren't interested in the technology from an alternate universe ship that is currently docked here at Valhalla?" Carter stated with a smirk. The voice was silent for a moment before responding.

"Alright, you have my attention. What is this about another ship from a different universe? Is it another _Daedalus_?," the voice asked.

"No but I have to introduce you to someone," Carter said before turning the monitor towards Archer. On the screen was a man that Archer could only describe as unhappy. His features resembled that of someone who hasn't slept in several days and has had too much coffee. "Captain Archer, I'd like to introduce you to the head of the Pegasus Research Division, Dr. Rodney Mckay."

 _Author's Note: Here is a short chapter to keep you guys entertained. I will be taking a break for about a day as my birthday is tomorrow so have a good weekend everyone! Remember to review and constructive criticisms are always welcome!_


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Captain Archer was not all too impressed by the man on the screen. He obviously wasn't a soldier but it was also obvious that he had taken part in many military operations before. Probably more than any MACO he has ever met. Dr. Mckay himself looked to be slouching with a slightly annoyed look on his tired face. Though Archer decided it would be best not to judge the man before meeting, or speaking, with him.

"Hello Doctor Mckay. My name is Captain Jonathan Archer of the starship Enterprise. It is a pleasure to meet you," Archer introduced himself. Mckay took a moment before responding to the captain.

"Hello, hello. Now what is needed from me?" Mckay arrogantly asked. Archer wasn't sure to be annoyed with the tone or just to wait before he knew more about this man again. The latter was the winner, but by a tiny margin.

"I was hoping that you would be able to look at our version of the transporters to see about using the same technology to replicate matter such as armor or food and the like. We have had some success in that field, however I would like this done before my ship has completed the refit," Archer explained. He was getting anxious about the answer he would looked deep in thought at this proposal. In one hand, he had many new projects that he was working on simultaneously. On the other hand, he had the chance to study technology from another universe entirely. Well, his mind was quickly made up.

"Alright, I'll look into it. I should be there soon if I get authorization for the gate," Mckay said. The office was silent for a moment before Carter sat up.

"I'll send a message to Teyla to let you use the gate," Carter said. Mckay was about to respond when Carter cut the feed. She sent a short communication through the subspace network before turning to a very confused Captain Archer.

"What's going on? What is this 'Gate'?" He asked.

"Come with me and I will show you," she said as she walked out of the room. Archer and Natalie quickly followed. After passing through several passageways and stairwells, they came across a large metal door. After inserting a special code into the nearby console, The large door started to open and revealed a large ring. It was covered in what looked like constellations and several arrows facing toward the center of the ring. Though Natalie seemed to know what it was, Archer was thoroughly confused as to what this device was.

He was especially confused as to why it needed the multiple weapon emplacements and armor barriers. What was this device so dangerously capable of that it required such heavy defences? His confusion grew when all of a sudden, the ring that held the constellations started to spin, stopped, and one of the arrows suddenly lit up. This happened several more times before a vortex formed and expanded from the center before settling in the center. What appeared to be a sideways pool formed in the center of the ring. Carter turned to see Archer staring at the Stargate in complete awe. She smirked slightly at his expression then decided to explain.

"This, Captain, is called a Stargate. It's a device that creates a stable wormhole with another Stargate in the network. They were built by a race we call the Ancients several thousand years ago and we have found several different variants. The one we have here is commonly found throughout our galaxy while there is other variants found in other galaxies such as Pegasus. Or even on several of the ancient space-craft we have managed to recover such as the Destiny we have found some version of the Stargate. We try to limit our use of it to lower the chances of one of our enemies using it against us and catching us flat-footed, but we still send out scouting teams to survey worlds that have gates and sometimes we have to travel quickly in an emergency situation," she explained.

"Link to Atlantis secured. I'm reading Dr. Mckay's signal," the voice said. As if he heard his name, the man Archer recognized as Dr. Rodney Mckay stepped out of the gate before it shut down.

"Alright Sam, where do you want me to start?" he asked. Archer grew slightly irritated with Mckay's tone of voice but calmed quickly. Instead he cleared his throat to get the attention of both parties.

"Hello Doctor. It's nice to meet you in person. I hope you can help us out," Archer greeted with an open palm. Though he looked annoyed for some odd reason, Mckay still shook Archer's hand.

"Hi. I would talk further but we are on a time-table if I understand and I would like to get to work quickly," Mckay stated. Archer nodded his head in agreement. The sooner they had this technology, the sooner HIS Earth would be safe.

(Line Break)

Archer was excited, and for several reasons. His ship was less than a week from completion, his crew was in high spirits for finishing their mission, Tau'ri scientists had figured out how to send them back to their universe just a few minutes from the time they had departed, and finally, his entire crew was being treated to a trip to the Tau'ri's version of Earth. Half stayed back at the ship to help with the refit, while the other half went to Earth for two days. The two groups switched after the first two days were up, as to allow everyone the chance to go. Captain Archer insisted that he would be with the second group to go that way everyone else had the chance before him.

He and his Vulcan science officer, T'pol, were standing on the bridge of the Nathan James, a Galahad class destroyer assigned to the 1st Fleet. They were invited to watch as the ship arrived at Earth while other members of the Enterprise crew watched out of any windows that were free. They were only a few moments away from entering Earth space when the soldier sitting at the helm made an announcement.

"Exiting hyperspace now sir," he reported to the commanding officer. At that moment, Archer watched as the blue tunnel of hyperspace suddenly opened to give everyone a good view of the big blue planet. Though it was surrounded by defensive stations and warships, Archer could still see the beauty the planet radiated. The continents of North and South America as well as part of Europe could be seen from orbit thanks to the sun. Lights from cities could be seen in the shadow of the planet. He was taking it all in when the comm officer gave a message to the CO.

"Sir, we have a Yorktown class carrier that is requesting we slow for a moment so they may pass us by," he reported. Though the request was odd, the Captain of the James gave the order to slow. Archer watched out the main view screen as a massive warship came into sight. It was similar in design to the Achilles except it had much larger hangar bays, most likely to accommodate a much larger fighter and bomber compliment. Though, Archer was confused as the lights that normally lit up the ship's designation were turned off so he couldn't see the name of the vessel in front of him. A voice suddenly spoke up on the bridge's speakers.

"Captain Archer? My name is Captain James A. Kirk. I am the commanding officer aboard the ship you see before you. We have somewhere else to be at the moment but I wanted to give you a send-off from the crew of the Tau'ri Carrier Enterprise." As soon as the name was heard, Archer, with surprise clearly on his face, watched as the name of his starship was brightly lit up on the side of the carrier, Enterprise. The ship shifted from starboard to port several times before vanishing off into hyperspace. After the quick spectacle, the James once again increased speed and passed by the orbital defence platforms before heading directly into the planet's atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean.

As they passed through the cloud layer, A large, mostly complete, floating city came into view before the ship. From what was complete, Archer could tell that it was to be a magnificent city with all of the latest civilian technology that the Tau'ri had created placed on it. The towers that were mostly concentrated on the center of the city were complete and they looked so much more advanced than most of the cities Archer had seen back in his universe. Connected to the central towers were several arms, or piers as the city was in water, that had varying levels of completion on each arm.

The James softly landed in the water near the southern arm and slowly slides into the pier before coming to a stop. Small walkways stretch out from the dock to the ship and lock into place outside some of the external airlocks. Archer was standing near one of the internal airlock doors with T'pol by his side when it suddenly opened with a hiss along with the external door. He had to cover his eyes from the bright sun for a moment but quickly adjusted before stepping outside. At the bottom of the stairs, Archer could clearly see General Carter, whom had left earlier that week on business, and Senator Woolsey along with another man that had a large security detail with him. Carter stepped forward with her hand out to shake. Archer shook it.

"Welcome to Earth Captain. I hope your flight was calm?" she asked.

"Indeed it was. Though I would greatly appreciate it if you sent Captain James Kirk my thanks for the show in orbit before landing," Archer asked.

"Of course. He left you this as a gift by the way. 'From one Enterprising Captain to another,' he told me. Here you go." Archer took the small package from Carter and opened it to find a small plaque and a patch. On the patch was the Tau'ri symbol but instead of the small circle above the arrow, it was the NX-01 with exhaust trails flying behind it. The same design could be found on the plaque right next to the design of the Enterprise patch on Archer's arm. Below both patches was the name Enterprise and the phrase Ut Supra Stellas.

"'To the stars above,'" Archer translated. Carter nodded her head before turning to introduce the other men with her.

"You remember Senator Woolsy," she asked.

"Of course I do. A pleasure to see you again Senator," Archer said as he shook the senator's hand.

"Pleasure is all mine Captain," the bald man said. Carter then introduced the final member of the group.

"And this is President Cameron Mitchell of the Tau'ri," she said. Said president moved toward the two officers with his hand extended. Archer took it with pleasure.

"I'm honored to meet you Captain. I've heard a lot about what you and your crew have gone through and I am sorry for those you have lost. I hope the upgrades we are giving will help you out in your mission," he said. Archer couldn't detect any sort of political ambition from the man in front of him and was glad he still hadn't run into a politically ambitious character trying to use him for political gains.

"Thank you for meeting me Mr. President. Thank you for both the upgrades and your sympathies. Both are greatly appreciated," Archer said. After the quick introductions, Archer was given a tour of the incomplete, and as of yet, unnamed, city, and was told about the history of Tau'ri Earth. He was slightly unnerved with how similar their two histories were, bar the Ancients and Asgard interference. The major event that differed their histories, was the exploration of the Stargate. The historical teams that led the fight against the Goa'uld and the Ori, of which he found out all three of the officials were a part of in some way, were incredible to listen to for both the Captain and the Vulcan. T'pol would ask many questions about the history of the Tau'ri and the galaxy at large.

Eventually she asked about how the Tau'ri had so easily united under a single banner. Apparently this was a bit of a sore spot for the leaders as they momentarily paused with a look of sadness on their faces. As it turns out, several of the cruellest Lucian Alliance factions joined together to try and take out the rapidly growing Tau'ri. They had dropped a captured, naquedah-enhanced, nuclear warhead on the first colony outside the Sol System, Valhalla. What happened afterwards was something the Lucian Alliance was not ready for, Just as the United States had been angered by the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Tau'ri were pissed off with the attack on the colony. The war that ensued, lasted several years for the Tau'ri, but only a few months for the Alliance as the Tau'ri trapped them in a time-dilation field until the forces needed could be built up.

When the field dropped, several years had passed for the Tau'ri, with only a few months going by for the Alliance. The space battle lasted only thirty minutes and the ground battle barely lasted a week. The Alliance had lost all but three of their old Ha'taks and all but one of the faction leaders were killed. After that, no one race wanted to fight against the Tau'ri. After hearing the story, both the Vulcan and the Human were amazed.

The duo would spend the next day learning about Earth's past while also learning about Earth now. They were told about the various adventures that SG-1 had gone on with Carter and Woolsy would talk about his time spent on Atlantis with General Sheppard and Dr. Mckay. All parties present seemed to enjoy the stories and the history spoken about both Earths. The second day, Archer was given a tour of San Francisco where his Earth had Starfleet Headquarters. When the trip had finally come to a close, Archer and T'pol left with all of the new history rattling around in their head, and several souvenirs. Archer himself had the gift patch from Captain Kirk placed underneath his NX-01 patch. He would keep it as a reminder of the aide that he and his crew received from their cousins.

 _ **Author's Note: I would like to apologize for the tardiness. I ran into a bit of writer's block with this one. I referenced the show**_ **'The Last Ship'** ** _with the_** ** _Nathan James_** ** _. Also, those of you who think I was ripping Captain Kirk from_** **'Star Trek'** ** _,_** ** _the current commanding officer of the United States Destroyer USS Zumwalt is Captain James A. Kirk and I thought it would be fun to place him in command of the_** **Enterprise** ** _Aircraft Carrier. As always, constructive criticisms are welcome as well as commentary. If anyone out there is an artist by the way, it would be awesome if you could design the new patch that Archer received and send me a picture through some fashion, DM, twitter, facebook, or the like. Thank you all for reading my story. Good day!_**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Archer was visibly excited, though he tried to keep his calm demeanor in front of the other personnel on the station. Today was the day that his ship finally fell away from the dockyard and travelled through the stars under her own power once again. The final touches were being added to the ship now as he was walking down towards the General's office. He knocked on the door then entered after he had heard Carter say to enter. When he did, Carter was completely dressed up in full uniform with every medal and honor she had earned placed on her uniform. Archer had to admit, there were quite a few.

"You ready to fly again Captain? Ready to see beyond the horizon once more?" she asked Archer with a smirk.

"Yes Ma'am. Though the mission will be complete first," he said. Archer was dead set on helping to protect Earth and every other planet in the Quadrant. Even if a couple of them were inhabited by a less than pleasant species. The duo walked through passageways that Archer had familiarized himself with for the past month until they reached the hangar bay. There, sitting at the far edge of the bay among the different Tau'ri spacecraft, was the worker pod from the _Enterprise_. The shuttles and the pod were some of the pieces of technology that had gone untouched by Tau'ri engineers, but Archer knew they would be getting refits while _Enterprise_ was travelling towards the Xindi Council. Until then, they were just the same as before, which was good because Archer did not need to re-learn how to fly either small craft.

The rear hatch opened with a soft hiss and Archer helped General Carter and her aide, Natalie, inside. Only then did he crouch before stepping inside. After shutting the hatch, he sat down in the pilot's seat, buckled in, and went to work with pre-flight checks. When everything was green, Archer started the engines and began worked the controls so that the pod would fly out of the hangar with ease, ready for when the artificial gravity would vanish out from under him. The gravitational pull ended right as he exited the hangar doors of the space station and he turned to starboard where he could see the dock his ship was parked in.

Though he could see the construction from his guest quarters, Archer wished to see his ship up close just like when the ship was docked over his Earth. Though he hoped to avoid scratching the paint like his chief engineer did that day. He arrived to a ship that was lit up by the work lights of the dock and only its navigation lights were activated on the ship. Its name and designation were still only lit by the dock just like the rest of the ship. Archer took a good long look at his ship. The new secondary hull was fitted seamlessly to the saucer as though it was meant to be there from the start. The deflector was moved to the secondary hull, as promised, and the old section where the deflector was has been filled with new crew quarters and sensors.

Archer could see the new shield projectors fitted next to the sublight engine pylons. Those would be useful against the Xindi, or anyone else that threatens the Starfleet ship. Archer couldn't wait to test the new defenses and weapons but that would come later in the day. For now, he just wanted to launch his ship once again.

"Like what we've done with the place Captain?" Carter asked. She had a smile on her face as she asked because she could see Archer's own smile at seeing his ship up close and complete again. He turned to her his smile never wavering.

"It's more than a fresh coat of paint but she deserves the upgrades. I can't wait to see her fly again," he said. Carter nodded her head in agreement.

"When she does launch, _Enterprise_ will rendezvous with the _Phoenix_. It is a _Daedalus II_ class cruiser that will be escorting you back toward the rift that brought you here. Before they do, however, your ship will go through a small series of trials just to test out the equipment. The _Phoenix_ is temporarily armed with replicated weapons that are similar to the weapons your Xindi, Andorians, Klingons, and Vulcans use. The beam and torpedo weapons will be thrown at your new shields and armor, just to see what kind of damage they could do in a fight," Carter explained.

"Yes I remember from the meeting a few days ago. I agreed that the tests were needed. We are also supposed to head to a nearby asteroid field to test our new weapons. The naquadah added to our torpedos should produce an even larger detonation yield than an average photonic torpedo. The phase cannons have also finished upgrades and are ready to be tested according to Mr. Reed. I think he is getting a bit jittery at the prospect of testing these weapons out. I must admit, so am I," Archer admitted. Carter laughed as she remembered what Sheppard would act like at the prospect of a new ship or weapon.

The pod took one last trip around the _Enterprise_ before moving to shuttlebay 2 at the aft section of the main saucer to dock up. Archer easily landed the pod into the cradle it was designed for and shut down the small craft. He then opened the small hatch and stepped followed by General Carter and her aide. They took a small tour of the ship that started with Primary Engineering where the new Tau'ri hyperdrive and shielding systems were under constant management. After asking one of the crewmen, Archer found out that his chief engineer was in Secondary Engineering where he was making sure that the Tau'ri didn't screw up "his" engine.

The tour continued to Sick Bay where Archer found Phlox feeding one of his many pets. After a brief conversation that ended with one of Phlox's infamous stretched smiles aimed at Carter, the trio made their way down to Secondary Engineering where they found Trip going over all the equipment. According to several other crewmen, it was the fifth time he had been doing so as he didn't want anything to go wrong. Archer decide to hold his query until Trip had finished the most recent piece of equipment that he was inspecting. When that was finished, Archer spoke up.

"We ready to go Trip?" he asked. Said engineer looked down from the catwalk he was standing on to see Archer and the General. Though he rarely met the General beyond their first meeting, he respected her for how much she has been willing to help repair his ship

"Ready when you are cap'n. No matter how much I look, everything is ready to go," Trip listed with a smirk. Archer nodded head before leaving the room and heading back into the turbolift. The lift took them all the way up to Deck A, the bridge. On the bridge, Archer found that very little had changed. Sure there was most likely changes to the separate consoles but the only obvious change to the bridge was some structural support beams that helped to secure the ship for speeds faster than Warp 5.2 as the ship wasn't originally designed to reach faster than Warp 5.0. Archer took a quick look around at his officers before pressing the ship-wide comm on his command chair.

"Attention all hands, this is the Captain. For the past few weeks, we have been fortunate enough to have met our cousins in another universe who helped us repair and refit our ship. Now we launch to restart our mission, to save our homes. Archer out," he finished then he pressed the same button again to end the broadcast before turning to Maywhether. "Take us out Mr. Maywhether."

"Aye sir." Anyone who was watching the starship looked upon it in awe as lights built into the craft began to light up key parts of the ship. The cargo bays, the airlocks, the nacelles, the pylons, and the hangar bays all lit up with bright lights. The final piece to fill the gap was the three lights the illuminated the starship's name and registry; _NX-01 Enterprise_. Soon after being lit up, the new sublight engines activated and the new maneuvering thrusters started to push the ship out of its port. Several Tau'ri workers that were out in construction space suits watched and waved as the ship passed by them at quarter thrusters. Others waved through windows and airlocks at the passing vessel.

As soon as the aft end of the nacelles cleared the dock, the yellow sublight engines flared to life and started pushing the ship faster towards where it would rendezvous with the _Phoenix_ to begin the quick trials. It only took a few minutes to reach the _Daedalus II_ before both vessels aligned to make the short hyperspace jump to the asteroid belt to begin testing the weapons.

"Ready for hyperspace travel Captain," Maywhether reported. Archer nodded his head. He could see the nervous faces on his command staff, even if T'pol was trying her best to hide it. Archer had noticed recently that she seemed more emotional lately. He would have to ask about it later as he needed to give orders.

"Hoshi have we received a green light to travel yet?" he asked his comm officer. She took a moment before nodding her head.

"Aye sir. The _Phoenix_ has given us the green light to travel," she relayed.

"You know what to do then Travis. Get us going," Archer ordered. Maywhether had pressed several keys before the viewscreen was filled with a blue portal directly in front of the ship. All anyone else saw were the two craft accelerating into twin blue portals before the portals vanished leaving nothing but the vacuum of space.

 **(Line Break)**

Far away from the nearest inhabitable planet, a large asteroid field that encircled the entire solar system of Valhalla sat with the many rocks that made up the field floating through space, untouched. Then, two blue portals appear near the field and spits out two very different looking vessels came out. One with a long neck and two pods and the other had a giant saucer connected by pylons to three cylinders. The Tau'ri ship _Phoenix_ and the Starfleet vessel _Enterprise_ had arrived in the asteroid field to finally test the latter's new weapon systems.

"Malcolm, are you ready?" Archer asks his tactical officer.

"Whenever you are, sir," Lt. Reed replies. Archer smirks.

"Okay then. Target the largest asteroid with the phase cannons. Lets test our old weapons before our new presents."

"Aye, sir." Malcolm pressed several keys on his console before nodding to his captain who then gave the order.

"Fire." Everyone on the bridge watched as the upgraded phase cannons completely decimated the closest side of the asteroid they were aiming at leaving half of it as molten entire bridge crew was speechless. "Malcolm," Archer asks, "What was the setting on that volley?"

"Seventy-five percent, sir," Malcolm stated with awe. The old phasers would have taken full power just to do half the damage caused to the asteroid. This was a massive improvement. Reed quickly found another large target and ready two different torpedos. One was the standard torpedo that was loaded on the _Enterprise_ at Earth before launching to find the Xindi and the other was a modified torpedo. Truthfully, the only modification was a small amount of naquadah being added to see if the element improves the firepower.

"Ready with standard torpedo sir," Reed declared. Archer nodded his head at Reed to fire and he did. The orange colored torpedo launched out of the tube and detonated against the asteroid doing a large amount of damage to a local area. The modified torpedo was then loaded into the tube and fired when Archer gave the order. The torpedo hit the same target as before but the damage was quite different. The torpedo hit a kilometer below the first torpedo and barreled right into the 'ground' a moment before completely vaporizing the entire rock. Nothing but a few stray atoms were detectable by the new scanners.

The bridge was silent in awe. These were only upgrades to their old arsenal. They haven't even tested the new weapons yet. Though Archer was slightly fearful of what these weapons could bring to his Earth, he decided to think about the dangers at a later date. The next weapon to be tested was the Asgard beam. A bright blue beam shot from one of the small domes placed around the hull and destroyed yet another asteroid. Though Archer had his worries, anyone could see that Malcolm was enjoying himself with the new weapons. The ion guns were unable to be tested as they were mainly built to shut down power systems and shield defences so those would have to wait.

A shuttle was launched from the _Enterprise_ with orders to fire on the ship as to test the new shield systems. Twin beams of red lashed out from the small craft and hit a bright blue barrier. The test was successful with there being no damage done whatsoever from the pod's weapons. A Tau'ri bomber and fighter were also launched from the _Phoenix_ and told to fire their weapons on the shield. After receiving an okay from Captain Archer, the fighter fired its main cannon and missiles while the bomber dropped it payload after the fighter. The shield held perfectly with there being less than a 0.00001 percent drop in shield power. The COs of both ships were pleased with the tests and made ready to leave to the coordinates that the starship came through.

After jumping back into hyperspace, the captain sat with General Carter and her Aide in his ready room. Being the gentleman he is, Archer gave his desk seat to Carter who accepted the offer and sat down. Before long both were chatting away with the different missions they undertook for their Earths. Archer spoke of his exploration missions before the Xindi attack and Carter spoke about as much as she could about her days as part of the legendary SG-1 team. She was just explaining about the time that her old CO, Colonel O'neill had been turned invisible and all the trouble he was getting into when Archer's desk comm started beeping. When pressed, Hoshi's voice came on.

"Captain, the _Phoenix_ says that their sensors are picking up several craft at the coordinated we arrived from. They called the vessels Ha'taks and said the General would know what they are," she said. When Archer turned to Carter, she stood up and began to speak.

"We would know if the Tok'ra were in the area as they are our allies so these vesels might belong to the Lucian Alliance. I would raise shields just in case captain as you may get to test your new ion guns sooner rather than later," she finished. Archer nodded before all three exited his ready room and stepped onto the bridge.

"Tactical alert Mr. Reed. Shields up and polarize the hull. Ready weapons we may have to fight our way home," Archer ordered. Reed said nothing as he carried out his orders. The room darkened as red lights began to flash and a short klaxon began to wail. Everyone on the bridge readied for a fight as they set about their stations. Archer was about to sit down but then offered the chair, once again to Carter who gladly took it as Archer stood by Maywhether to give orders when needed.

Several minutes passed until both the _Enterprise_ and the _Phoenix_ both dropped out of hyperspace in front of four, pyramid shaped vessels. Archer didn't even get an order out as all four vessels fired on the two new arrivals. The _Enterprise_ shook slightly at the barrage but the shields held out. The _Phoenix_ charged ahead and fired off its ion guns and plasma beams. Its guns hit the shields of two of the pyramid ships and the beams punctured through one of them, destroying the target.

"Malcolm Target the closest vessel and fire the ion guns. Let's see if they work as advertised," Archer ordered.

"Aye, sir," Reed replied before targeting the closest ship. "Ready to fire on your command, sir."

"Fire ion guns." burst of white lights fired off from the hull of the _Enterprise_ and began hitting the shields of the Ha'tak.

"Enemy shields down to seventy-two percent, sir," Reed declared.

"Lock on with the new torpedos. Fifty percent yield and fire when ready." Reed quickly loaded the torpedos and fired as soon as they were ready. The enemy vessel took all four of the fired torpedos with the first three draining the shield and the fourth literally blowing the tip off of the vessel. The vessel mad no more corrections and began to drift. "Target the next vessel with Asgard beams and phase cannons."

"Aye, sir." Blue and red beams of energy shot out from the _Enterprise_ with deadly accuracy and completely obliterated the enemy vessel. After a quick scan, the crew realized that the _Phoenix_ had taken care of the other two vessels. The entire battle lasted no more than two minutes with four enemy ships destroyed and neither the Tau'ri nor the Starfleet ships taking any amount of damage.

After the minor engagement was over, the _Phoenix_ aimed its bow at the point that the _Enterprise_ had arrived from and launched a small probe. The probe slowed itself when it reached the perfect spacial coordinates of the anomaly. Then, the sensors on _Enterprise_ detected a detonation of some sort that blinded everyone with a bright light. Both vessels' bridges could filter out the extra light, thankfully, but anyone looking out of a window was out of luck. When the bright light dimmed, a portal big enough for the Starfleet vessel to fit through with ease appeared.

"Before I go, I wish to give you a gift," Carter said as she handed Archer a small bottle of champagne. "We launched your ship so quickly we didn't get to enjoy the moment of it so I had this, along with a small crate full of this stuff, beamed into your first cargo bay. Good luck Captain Archer. Something tells me you will need it," she finished as she stuck out her hand. Archer took her hand with a smile.

"Goodbye General," Archer said as they let go.

"May the wind be at your back Captain," she said before tapping her earpiece. " _Phoenix_ , two to return." Both the General and her aide vanished in a blue flash and Archer was left with only his ship, his crew, and a new spark of hope.

"Travis, let's go save our home. Ahead at half-speed," Archer ordered.

"Ahead half-speed aye, sir." Maywhether did a quick check of his instrument before giving the commands to increase speed. Everyone on the bridge of the _Phoenix_ watched as a blue sphere of energy formed around the _Enterprise_ just before entering the anomaly. The last thing anyone on the Tau'ri ship saw was the registry _NX-01_ on the port nacelle before the anomaly once again closed off each universe from the other.

 **Author's Note: Once again I apologize for the wait between chapters. As this is something I do on the side, it is not on my highest of the list of priorities. However I do still hope you guys are reading this story and are enjoying it. Comments and constructive criticisms are fine but no flame please. For those who haven't guessed, the refit for the** ** _Enterprise_** **is quite similar to the refit that was planned for the show before it was ended early. Some simple modifications have been added for the Tau'ri tech such as the complete saucer, as I saw no need for two separate deflector dishes, the new, rounder, sub-light engines, and the domes for the ion guns and the asgard beams. The rest of the ship, however, looks the same as the original refit did. Thanks again for reading and goodnight.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Amongst the violet and yellow hues that the gases of the nebula made up, a bright light was shining where a spacial anomaly had resided for an unknown amount of time. Several alien spacecraft have been keeping a closer eye on the tunnel after an unknown vessel had barely managed to pass through the anomaly. Though, due to the instability of the portal at the time, the guardians of the portal were unsure if the heavily damaged ship even survived the journey through the portal. They were undergoing a standard patrol when the sensors on all three of the orbiting vessels started going crazy.

The anomaly was fluctuating once again though there was something different about it. It seemed to be spitting up something instead of sucking the nebula gases in the area. All of a sudden, with a burst of bright white light that caused the alien view screens to severely darken to compensate, the starship from before came flying out. Though there was an obvious upgrade from the last time the guardians had seen it.

It had a completely new section attached to the underside of the main dish section and there were no more breaches or score marks from combat damage. The hull was shiny and new with fresh paint added to complete the old, and new, markings. The guardians had quickly come out of their shock and ordered their crew's to open fire on the vessel. The green beams of energy flared out of their weapon ports, only to ram into a new, blue energy field that didn't even seem to buckle under the attack.

On the bridge of the _Enterprise_ , the command staff was slightly surprised at the attack but were quickly pushed out of shock when they realized that the shield had taken the hit. And there was almost no damage done. Weapons that had reduced the starship to almost a floating wreck before the portal, had done barely a smidgen of damage to the new shielding technology. T'pol even did a quick scan and found that the energy weapons that the guardians were using were unlikely to puncture the hull until after two to three shots.

"Malcolm, can you get weapon lock on those ships?" Archer asked his tactical officer. Mr. Reed only smirked and nodded in response. "Then target their weapons and engine bays. I don't want any unnecessary deaths today."

"Aye, sir." Reed went to work on his console, sending orders down to the armory to load torpedos and giving targeting data to the phase cannons and the Asgard beam arrays. The turrets once again slid out of the ports on the saucer and moved to their target.

The alien ships weren't all that surprised when the _Enterprise_ began targeting them. They were unprepared, however, for the sheer power behind the upgraded vessel. Bright blue beams shot out from various places on the hull and plowed through the shields of several of the alien ships. Then, smaller, crimson beams shot out engine systems and weapon control systems which left the alien vessels stranded in space, blind, deaf, and paralyzed.

Out of the six closest vessels to the rift, four were unable to shoot or fly straight. The other two had lost shields and barely had any weapon power to speak of. Another blast from the _Enterprise_ blew out the engines of the first vessel then the second vessel began moving towards the starship, slowly increasing speed. It was on a kamikaze run.

"Sir, the last ship is on a collision course. I do not know if the shield can withstand the stress of an entire vessel striking it," T'pol stated with slight alarm hidden in her voice. Archer turned to Reed and only nodded. Reed pressed a single key on his console and only one torpedo launched from the tubes. That single torpedo slammed into the alien vessel and then detonated. The explosion was powerful enough to completely vaporize the charging ship. All that was left behind was trace elements and molecules.

The bridge was silent. Mostly of remorse as they hadn't wanted to kill the crew, just to dissuade them from making that suicide charge. Though the moment of silence was needed, the crew quickly realised that there may be more alien vessels on their way to the _Enterprise's_ position. Archer quickly gave his orders.

"T'pol, use the sensors to find us a way through the nebula out of the sensor ranges of the alien craft. Malcolm, work in tandem with T'pol to find a safe route. Keep the weapons and shields online but do not fire without my command. Hoshi, monitor comm channels and see if we can track their positions from the chatter. Travis, follow the path you get from Malcolm and T'pol. You have free reign to improvise if the need arises but keep us out of sensor, or at least weapon, range," he ordered. Everyone responded then got to work. Archer then called down to Primary Engineering. "Trip, how are we doing?"

"We didn't even get a spark from damage down here. That shield obviously can hold its own. We had some sparking on deck C but not much more than that. The new sensors are great at picking up combat damage inside the hull but I still want to get some eyes going around as a double-check," Trip replied.

"Do what you have to do. Archer out." He clicked his comm to cut the line, then he sat down. There were no other orders to give so he just let his crew do their jobs. It took almost a standard Earth hour to get through but they did it.

Maywhether let out a rather large sigh as he recognized the stars around them. Even though there was still danger with the Xindi and possibly with the aliens inside the nebula, he was relieved to

be in a familiar setting. Behind him, T'pol was running a quick scan to tell when exactly the ship had returned from.

"Captain, if the sensors are correct, it has only been approximately twelve hours since we entered the anomaly," she reported. It was interesting to think about. Everyone aboard the ship was now over a month older than the rest of the universe perceived them to be. An almost disturbing thought, but interesting nonetheless.

"Alright then. Travis set a course to the coordinates that Degra gave us. Start us with the hyperdrive then switch to the warp drive once we are within an hour of the coordinates at warp five. Lets try to lessen the blow of our sudden upgrades shall we?" Archer ordered/asked.

"Aye, sir," Maywhether stated before inputting the commands needed to carry out the Captain's orders. On the view screen, the command staff watched as a blue portal opened up before them, then they watched themselves enter the portal and enter a tube filled with streaks of blues and whites.

Now, it was time to see if all of the sacrifices that the crew had given was enough. Now it was time to see if Earth, and the Xindi, could be saved before it was too late.

 **(Line Break)**

Just in the back of the bridge, the sole monitor that used to sit over the desk has been moved and separated to two screens on the left and right sides of the desk. In the spot that the monitor used to be, was now a bronze plaque. On it was the old and new emblems for the _Enterprise_ with the starship's name and registry were just below that. Just under the registry was written _Sacrificantes In Liberam_ , and below that was the names of the thirteen crewmen who were lost in the Xindi attack on the ship weeks before. A solid reminder to the crew of what they were fighting for and who they have lost along the way.

 _ **Author's Note: I know it is short and it has been a while, but as I stated, this is a side deal that I do in my free time. I have online courses that I am working on all the time and I have family to care about. I thank you all for your patience with this and I welcome the newest readers to this story. The term, when translated from Latin, reads**_ _ **"For their sacrifices, Let them be free."**_ _ **I hope you are all enjoying this story as I do enjoy writing it. I have to refresh my memory of the events after the STE episode "E2 (E squared)" and figure out how to shift them to accommodate this new technology and history. Not too difficult but difficult nonetheless. All I ask for is patience and time. Thank you.**_

 _ **Also, send some ideas my way. What do you guys think should happen next or how do you think they would occur? I would love to hear ideas as I do read your comments. As always, constructive criticisms are welcome though I would appreciate it if there were no flames please. Again thank you for your patience, thoughts, and just for taking the time to read my small story. See you guys next chapter!**_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

" _Something has happened. The timelines are all changing, and none of them resemble a positive timeline." a Sphere Builder stated._

" _What has changed all of history in such a way?" another asked of the first._

" _I don't know exactly, but it has something to do with the Starfleet ship," the first responds. She turns to a third Builder, the one that is commonly speaking with the Xindi. "Do not allow that ship to interfere any longer!" The third Builder only nods her head before all three Builders vanish into the void._

 **Line Break**

Degra's nerves were going absolutely haywire and it took every ounce of his will just to keep from panicking. The evidence that he had seen aboard the Earth Starship _Enterprise_ with Captain Archer was breaking him down. the evidence has shown that the very people that had helped the Xindi species, The Gaurdians, time and time again, were possibly just using his species to complete their own ulterior motives. His thoughts drifted to the council members that he and Archer would have to convince.

He and his friend were already fairly convinced with little doubt in their minds about what actions they should take. Jannar of the Arboreals, while not entirely convinced is willing to halt the launch of the weapon to see any other evidence Archer may bring to the Council.

Then the situation grows… difficult. The insectoids may be willing to listen but there is no guarantee of support. Dolim of the Reptilians may just pass off the evidence as fabrications and just ignore it all together. The Aquatics would be the most difficult to convince. They were the most difficult to convince just to get the weapon construction started.

All of these things were rummaging around his head when he had a crewman speak up.

"Sir, I am detecting a vessel approaching at high warp," he said. Degra looked at the young officer.

"Archer's ship?" Degra asked. The officer took a moment to respond.

"It… has the same warp signature as the Earth ship, but the energy levels coming off of that ship are far above what it is supposed to be, and the ship appears to be traveling at what the humans call Warp 6. Sir, the Earth ship was only supposed to go to Warp 5," the officer explained. Degra was silent. A look of absolute confusion adorned his face.

"How is that possible?" he asked. The officer looked at him with slight worry showing on his face.

"I don't know sir, but the ship is dropping out of warp now." Degra looked at the viewing screen at the front of the bridge. He watched as the common flash of light that signalled a ship slowing down from warp travel appeared and a new ship slowed to a halt in front of him.

It was obviously an Earth starship, but the design was clearly a bit more advanced, and in much better shape, than the _Enterprise_ had been when he last saw it. There was an obvious addition made to the underside of the saucer section and there were numerous domes that were placed all about the hull of the vessel, though Degra had no clue what they could be for. He was only confused further as he read the name on the dorsal side of the ship, _Enterprise._

Degra was pulled away from the viewscreen when a short beeping noise came from the console in front of him. The ship in front of him was trying to communicate. With a slightly shaky hand, he opened up a two way video communication and on his viewscreen, a picture of a fresher looking Captain Archer appeared.

"Hello Degra. I hope we aren't late to meet with you?" Archer asked. Degra took a moment to collect himself before opening his mouth to respond to Archer.

"Archer. What is this? What happened to your ship?" he asked. Archer took a quick look about his bridge before returning his gaze towards Degra.

"Why don't you and anyone else you believe necessary come aboard and I will explain what has happened," Archer stated. Though Degra would like to have his questions answered immediately, he held his tongue and decided it would be better if he paid a visit to get the answers he needed.

"Alright. I will meet you at your starboard airlock along with the Arboreal Council members," Degra said. Archer nodded his head.

"Seen you then. Archer out," he finished as the communication shut down. Degra took a moment before calling up the other council members that are on board his ship. When they arrived on the bridge, they immediately took notice of the freshly-launched looking starship.

"I thought the Earth ship was heavily damaged from their engagement with the Reptilian and Insectoid vessels. That looks like a ship that recently has seen a repair facility of some sort. How is it they have managed to upgrade their vessel so heavily in such a short span of time?" Jannar queried.

"I don't know, but I still believe that Archer has an explanation for all of this," Degra stated. "I say we pay him a visit."

"Agreed," Jannar stated. Degra's vessel quickly aligned to the docking port on _Enterprise's_ starboard side. Degra and the other councilors were awaiting the airlock to cycle on the Earth ship.

 **Line Break (A Few Minutes Before)**

"Two minutes to the coordinates, Sir," Maywhether stated. Archer nodded his head and stood up from his command chair. He had to admit, travelling at warp was quite relaxing for him. Though he pushed those thoughts out of his head as quickly as they had appeared. He had a mission to complete and he would see it through.

He didn't even feel the usual inertial pull when the ship slowed from warp speed thanks to the new inertial dampeners.

"We have dropped out of warp at the designated coordinates.I am detecting another vessel in the area. It's Degra, sir," Maywhether reported.

"Alright, slow us down. Malcolm keep the the weapons and shields down but be prepared to charge everything quickly if the need arises. Travis, slow us to a stop off their bow. Let's try not to seem threatening," Archer ordered. Maywhether slowly maneuvered the _Enterprise_ to just off the smaller vessel's bow then, using the forward thrusters, brought the ship to a complete halt.

Reed checked all of the weapons and the shield generators to see if they were green then he readied everything for a quick charge up. This would draw more power from other systems but it would allow the weapons a chance to be fired sooner rather than later. As soon as the _Enterprise_ came to a stop, Archer walked over to Ms. Sato's workstation before he spoke again.

"Hoshi, open a channel," he ordered. Said officer went to work opening a communication channel and sending a request to the other ship to speak with the Earth vessel. The viewscreen then changed to show the bridge of the Xindi vessel. Archer internally smirked at Degra's face. He could only imagine the faces of the Admiralty when he returned to Earth with his newly upgraded starship.

"Hello Degra. I hope we aren't late to meet with you," Archer asked with a straight face. Degra was visibly speechless before speaking.

"Acher. What is this? What happened to your ship?" he asked his face full of confusion. Archer took one quick look around the bridge before responding.

"Why don't you and anyone else you believe necessary come aboard and I will explain what has happened," Archer said. Degra seemed disappointed in the lack of answers but then settled on waiting for the answers he wanted.

"Alright. I will meet you at your starboard airlock along with the Arboreal Council members," he said. Archer nodded his head.

"See you then. Archer out," he finished before Hoshi shut down the communication channel. Archer looked down at his helmsman before giving a new order. "Travis hold here but keep the engines warm and ready to go at a moment's notice. Malcolm keep the weapons ready but have a couple of MACOs meet us at the starboard saucer airlock. T'pol you're with me." As both Maywhether and Reed followed up on their particular orders, T'Pol stood up from her station and followed her captain into the turbolift.

Archer and T'Pol were both met by two MACOs as they awaited the airlock to finish pressurising. After the audible alarm that meant the airlock was pressurized, Archer opened the airlock to see the four Xindi council members, two Arboreals and two Primates.

Degra, and his Arboreal Councilman counterpart, Jannar both walked in and greeted Archer. Archer, himself, welcomed them aboard.

"Welcome back aboard the _Enterprise_. I'm sure you have a lot of questions and I will answer them in the conference room if that is alright with you two?" Archer asked of his guests. Degra looked over to Jannar, whom nodded his head, before turning back to Archer.

"That is… agreeable, but we have many questions for you and I hope you will answer them honestly," Degra told Archer with an emphasis on, "honestly." Archer nodded his head then led the four council members, who were followed by the two MACOs, to the conference room near the port bow side of the saucer section.

Once they had all sat down, besides T'Pol who stepped near the viewing screen, Archer ordered his first officer to pull up some of the non-classified files about their trans-universal trip. While that wasn't much, Archer figured the councilmen were most likely putting their lives and the lives of their friends and families at risk just by speaking with him so he decided to trust them a little bit.

After finishing the report, the room was silent, The four councilmen were completely quiet. Archer waited patiently for any questions the councilors had. It was only a few short minutes before Degra spoke up.

"So this rift sent you to another universe. I can, barely, understand that happening but how did this other Earth manage to rebuild and refit your ship so quickly?" he asked. Archer shifted in his seat.

"They had several types of construction methods that managed the quicken the work that needed to be done. Even with their methods, however, it still took six weeks for the ship to be finished," Archer stated. Before he could continue, Jannar took his momentary silence as a chance to speak up.

"It has only been a few days here however. Did time move differently in this other universe?" he asked. T'Pol then spoke up.

"No. As I stated, we traveled backwards in time as well when we travelled to this other universe. In order to get back, these other humans reopened the rift with a special type of probe. Though they did not share with us what they did exactly to send us back to this point, I managed to get some readings from the sensors. Though I am still going over the data and I haven't found much as of yet," she explained as she sat down across from Degra. All parties leaned back in their seats to absorb this new information.

"In any case, this ship proves to be a serious problem for getting you to the council. They would be expecting a crippled vessel like the one we saw in the combat logs from the Reptilians. If you were to appear before the council in your vessel now, even if you had several Arboreal and Primate ships escorting you, you would have a very difficult time trying to convince anyone of your case as they would believe the evidence to be fabricated," Jannar, correctly, stated. Archer had his head face down in thought. It then immediately shot up, surprising Archer's first officer.

"What if you took us in on your ship Degra? I still have the uniform from the attack on my ship, same with several others on my command staff. We can have the _Enterprise_ hide for 'fear of attack' and you can take myself, my comm officer, and a couple of MACO's to the council. That should calm some of the tenser members of the council correct?" Archer suggested. While caught off guard, Degra quickly got to thinking.

"It could work, but we would need to gather everything that could be used for evidence quickly as there is a council meeting within twenty-four hours," he said. After the decision was quickly made to hide _Enterprise_ and for Degra to take Archer, Hoshi, and a couple MACOs to meet with the council.

Over the next hour, all of the evidence that Archer wished to show, from physical evidence to data collected by Phlox on the alien from the pod, was loaded onto Degra's ship. After giving T'Pol orders on where to hide and to keep an ear out for anything that may start happening, Archer and the three other members of the away team walked onto the small craft and closed the airlock. Soon after, the craft pulled away from the Earth vessel's airlock and almost immediately went to warp where it would rendezvous with several other Primate and Arboreal ships to head toward the Xindi Council.

 **(Line Break)**

Regimental Commander Dolim was basking in the heat and glow of the special lamps that provided much needed nutrients for his species when an officer from the bridge entered the room, disturbing Dolim's few moments of peace.

"Sir, we have found the remnants of the ship you ordered to find Degra," the officer reported. Dolim's eyes snapped open and he asked a question.

"Where?"

"It was hidden within the cloaking barrier of a sphere," the officer responded referencing the numerous odd spheres that could be found all throughout the Delphic Expanse. Dolim was quiet for only a few moments.

"Begin an investigation. I want to know what happened to that ship," he said.

"It has already begun, sir. I will report any findings to you directly," the officer finished before leaving the Regimental Commander, who was now distracted from any peace he could find with thoughts about what may have destroyed a vessel that coincidentally was looking for a person that Dolim was suspecting of being a traitor.

 _ **Author's Note**_

 _ **Hello again my friends. I know it has been a while but I have had many thing to distract me as of late from school to home. I know it may not be the greatest of chapters but it does add a bit of backstory and is leading up to much more than just the Xindi weapon. I hope you enjoy and please remember to comment. Throw some ideas my way and we'll just have to see what happens from there. Thanks again. -D'terran**_


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"We are sending a small team on a shuttle to the nearest sphere to pick up any information from this," T'pol stated as she pointed to a small segment of the internals of a sphere, "artificial intelligence node. We hope the information will be able to be of use." Degra looked at the internal scans of a sphere with extreme interest. No Xindi had ever been able to get anything close to an internal scan and here he was looking at extremely detailed ones of a device that may doom not just the Xindi, but every living species in the galaxy. Archer took this time to speak up.

"We could use any scans you have about the external shell of the spheres." Degra looked him right in the eye.

"I will send everything we have in our database," he said before turning back to the screen.

(Line Break)

"I've compiled all the data we have sir," the crewman at the helm stated. Degra leaned in to quickly check on the young officer's work before giving him an order.

"Good send it over to Archer quickly." Degra was about to return to his quarters when an entirely new voice spoke up.

"It's not too late…" Degra turned to see… a Guardian. Though surprised, Degra managed to order out the younger officer, after the officer had received a nod from the Guardian to do so. "Not everyone has forgotten what we have done for your people."

"What do you want?" Degra asked of the creature in front of him.

"Come back to us. I hear it in your voice, you are betraying everything you believe in and you are in turmoil," she said.

"I don't regret what I am doing."

"Haven't you asked yourself why we have protected the Xindi for so long?"

"Many of us have wondered that." Degra answered. The Guardian quickly walked towards him before speaking again.

"It's because we have seen a future where the Xindi are no longer fragmented. No longer struggling for existence. You are destined to be a great civilization but it is all in jeopardy, because of you," she finished.

"Is it? Tell me, did that timeline include an Enterprise, which once carried the title of an exploratory vessel, that can now be considered the most powerful warship in this area of space. Did that timeline include an Earth that receives some of the most powerful technology I've ever seen?" Degra's voice slowly raised with every question. Turning the tables against the Guardian. Degra continued, "We very much may have given the people of Earth a reason to attack us, as you claim they do. We killed seven million of their people in a surprise attack. That group was mostly innocent with only a fraction of them being members of Earth's military. We are guilty of mass murder if what Archer says is true and you coming here and speaking of timelines and 'seeing the future' only increases my faith in what Archer says."

Absolute silence filled the bridge before the Guardian faded from view. Degra took a moment to gather his thoughts before turning to have a chat with Archer.

(Line Break)

Though they had a bit of a scare getting into the sphere, seeing as how T'pol decided to leave out the bit of information where a specific armor panel was just a hologram, the small away team was moments away from retrieving the information they were after.

"It's practically gift-wrapped," Malcolm states as the team comes upon the sphere memory core. Suddenly, Maywhether detected something on the shuttlepod's sensors.

"I'm detecting some kind of movement," he stated. Malcolm spoke up on the comm.

"Can you pinpoint it?" he asked.

"There's too much interference. I don't know where it is but it's close."

"I suggest we work fast," Malcolm stated to his two fellow crewmen. Working swiftly, T'pol was able to remove the dome that surrounded the data core and was able to lift it with the assistance of the MACO on the team. Meanwhile, Malcolm was trying to use his personal scanner to try and find the movement that Maywhether had mentioned.

"Reed to Shuttlepod One, anything?" he asked.

"Negative, sir. Whatever it was, it stopped moving." Maywhether reported. Malcolm gave T'pol a signal to remove the data core from its housing. A moment after she began removing it, Maywhether screamed out in alarm.

"Got something! Its heading in your direction, moving fast!" he stated. Malcolm and the MACO both looked about to try and find this fast moving object. When neither could find it, the MACO spoke up.

"I don't see it!" Malcolm spoke up once again.

"Give me a position!" Maywhether took a quick look to try and give a position for the object.

"It's coming down from the upper-left quadrant." T'pol and the other two members of the away team looked up in that general direction, but couldn't see anything.

"Are you sure?" Malcolm asks quickly.

"Damn sure! It's seventy meters away! Fifty meters! Thirty! Fifteen!" Maywhether's voice could be heard growing fearful for the lives of his shipmates. Then the MACO spotted it.

"I see it!" he states as he climbs a nearby ramp to try and get a better shot. Both he and Malcolm open fire with bright blue and red particle weapons fire. Even under fire, the claw managed to grab ahold of the MACO on the ramp.

"Hawking!" Malcolm yelled as he fired off more shots to try and damage the arm enough to save the life of a MACO he promised to protect. Unfortunately, the claw had some sort of weapon that completely vaporized the poor MACO before he could be saved. T'pol's eyebrows rose in apparent alarm as she witnessed this. Malcolm continued to lay down fire as he tried to get T'pol to move back toward the shuttle.

"Go! Go! Go!" he yelled. T'pol tried her very best to move quickly in her bulky environmental suit up the same ramp that the MACO was killed not moments ago. As soon as she was on top of the ramp, she started to lay down suppressive fire for Malcolm to head up the ramp. They were following the path back to the shuttle when another arm came out of the blue and made a move to grab Mr. Reed. Before that could happen, though, Large phased energy beams lashed out at the claw several times before the arm broke apart.

Mawhether moved the shuttle around to try and make a quick pick-up of his fellow crewmates, before he picked up something on sensors.

"Five more are headed this way! MOVE!"

(Line Break)

Degra's shuttle emerged alongside several other Xindi Arboreal and Primate ships several kilometers away from Regimental Commander Dolim's flagship. Dolim's ship was part of the security detail for the council chambers and so a routine scan was made of the approaching ships. The officer in charge was just looking over the results when Dolim walked onto the bridge.

"Sir, several Primate and Arboreal vessels are approaching. Scans show there are several humans on Degra's vessel," said officer reported. Dolim gave the officer a disbelieving look before turning to another one of his bridge officers.

"Get me Degra," Dolim ordered. A few moments later, an image of Degra and Jannar appeared on the viewscreen. "My sensors detect several humans on your ship, Degra. I'm glad to see that you will hand these ones over instead of freeing them like you did with Archer," he assumed of Degra, whom looked a bit nervous himself.

"They are not prisoners. Archer and his away team are granted safe passage to plead his case in front of the council," he said. Dolim, in his mind anyway, took this as evidence that Degra was a traitor but he knew his lone ship couldn't stand up to the combined forces of the Arboreal and Primate forces.

"They are enemies of the council and have no such right to even set foot on the planet! Whatever so-called, "evidence," the human has shown you is a falsification and he needs to be taken prisoner!" Dolim sneered. He could attempt to delay them long enough for reinforcements to arrive, but he knew that any extra Reptilian vessels would be quickly intercepted if any of the vessels in front of him sent a warning to the Insectoids or Aquatics.

"Both Jannar and I have seen the evidence and deemed it a necessity for the council to at least look over it," Degra explained with the other councilor behind him nodding his head. Dolim gave one final sneer before ordering his crew to move his ship aside.

"I will see you in the chamber," Dolim said before cutting the live feed. "Get us back to the council and have more ships come to guard the planet. I don't like not knowing where that Earth ship is. Send out a scouting party. That human filth couldn't be far with how much damage it has sustained. I want it found and the crew taken prisoner." He didn't even wait for someone to acknowledge his orders before storming off of the bridge.

 _ **Author's Note**_

 **I wish to apologize to those that have waited the better part of a year to see anew chapter to this story. My life took several odd, and time consuming turns, and it has been quite distracting. I hope you guys can find it in your hearts to forgive me. Thank you for reading and I hope you guys have a great weekend.**

 **And a personal message to TrekLover, I am sorry for not responding to your PM but I hope this chapter is satisfying. Thank you for trying to get me back on this story. Trully.**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Degra's shuttle wove elegantly between the edges of the canyon it was flying through. The thick clouds blocking out most of the view caused the shuttle to pass through slowly to avoid colliding with the canyon walls. Archer, Hoshi, and the two MACO's that made up the Captain's security detail, all watched the viewports eagerly. While Archer and Hoshi were attempting to get an early view of the council chambers, the MACO's were remembering the shuttle's path just in case a quick getaway was needed.

That's when the thick cloud cover passed to reveal a temple looking structure carved directly into the rock-face of the canyon. Time had obviously taken its toll as there were pieces missing, either from age, weather, or other factors. Though that did not decrease the majesty of it all. The explorer in Archer was just itching to take a look at the inside of the entire structure but the battle-hardened instincts that had grown since the attack on Earth told him to hold back that curiosity until a later date. Maybe if peace is made with the Xindi, a trade could be made to study the Xindi legacy.

The shuttle quickly docked up to a small hangar where the six passengers stepped off into the large, stone hangar. They travelled through a series of different corridors that looked older as they travelled. Archer noticed Hoshi growing ever more nervous with every step and ddecided to break the ice.

"Reminds me of the time where I was sent to the principal's office," he stated hoping to get a reaction.

"I was never sent to the principal's office," Hoshi commented.

"I was once," Archer stated.

"What for?" Hoshi asked. Archer instead noticed they were near their destination so he quickly put a pause to the conversation.

"When we're done here," he finished quieter than before. The group rounded one last corner where they ran into a pair of Reptilian guards outside a large doorway. They stiffened when they noticed the armed MACO's, but Degra quickly chimed in to put an end to any growing hostilities.

"This is a diplomatic mission for Captain Archer and, as such, he may have a pair of guards with him. If you are still uncomfortable with them inside the Chamber, then you may accompany us as a deterrent from hostilities." The two guards shared a quick look before they opened the doors to the chamber, albeit a bit slowly.

Archer took a good, long look around the room. It was constructed with stone originally but metal support beams have obviously been added in later on. The opposite side of the room opened up into another hallway that led to the Council Members' personal quarters and a large water tank was built into the right side wall where Archer could plainly see the two Aquatic Council members watching him with interest, their gills slowly opening and closing in a rhythmic pattern.

There were two crescent shaped tables on either side of the room where the fellow members sat. On the left side sat the Primate Councilman Degra, the Arboreal Councilman Jannar, and the Insectoid councilman who's name Archer wasn't going to attempt to pronounce due to the fact that Insectoid names get longer as time goes on. On the right side, from the left side of the table onward, sat the Reptilian Councilman Dolim, a space to see the Aquatic Councilmen, and an empty seat left empty to remember the long dead Xindi species that had been killed off by two of the other five species, the Avians. Each of the living species had a second councilman that sat near them.

All chatter had ceased as soon as the door opened to reveal Archer and his crewmen. Archer stared back down at the Insectoid, Reptilian, and Aquatic council members. As he stared, Archer tried to remember the advice that Degra had tried to give him on the shuttle.

(Flashback)

"The Aquatics respect boldness and confidence. They view hushed tones with suspicion," Degra stated.

"I'll make sure I project," Archer said. Degra quickly spoke up again.

"Not too loudly the Insectoids interpret raised voices as a sign of hostility." Archer was already growing frustrated and he was still in orbit over the planet. Hoshi spoke up from the seat next to him.

"When Aquatics speak in past-tense they switch to sonar," she said. Archer frustration only grew. He hated politics. He can recall many times where he has raised his voice, or outright yelled, at a diplomatic envoy of some sort. This mainly occurred around Vulcans much to the displeasure of Admiral Forrest and most of the heads of Starfleet.

(Flashback End)

He was brought back to the present when Dolim spoke up.

"You have brought Humans into this chamber, Degra! Explain yourself, if you expect them to leave here alive!" he nearly yelled. The twin MACO's gripped their particle rifles a bit tighter which caused the twin Reptilian guards to reach for their own, holstered weapons, slowly. Degra once again spoke up to tone down the hostile atmosphere.

"I'm fully prepared to fully explain my actions. There is no cause for threats," he stated. The Arboreal councilman quickly spoke up as well.

"Agreed," Jannar stated as he turned towards his fellow council members. "We've reviewed the data that you have sent us Archer. We are prepared to listen to what you have to say." Degra nodded his head slightly towards Archer as a sign to begin then he sat down in his assigned seat, but not before he and Dolim had a small stare-down.

Archer was quiet for several moments before he took one step down the small staircase and spoke up in a strong, anger-barely withheld, voice.

"You killed seven million of my people," he began. Both Jannar and Degra showed small signs of remorse before they regained their stoic masks in front of the other council members. "I want to be honest with you. I don't much like standing here." Jannar spoke up.

"We did what we felt was necessary," he said and Archer quickly started speaking once more.

"I know. You've been told that at some point in the future, my world is going to destroy yours. That's a lie." The insectoid instantly slammed two of his four hands on the table in front of him and spoke angrily in his own language. Hoshi quickly looked at her personal scanner to read out the translation.

"He said 'The Guardians have never lied to us'" she translated. Archer moved swiftly to stand in front of the Insectoid councilman.

"The Guardians built the spheres that can be found all throughout this region of space. They are reconfiguring the Expanse, getting it ready for colonization." Dolim took this moment to speak up.

"You reek of desperation. You would say anything to save your world as evidenced by this manufactured data." he finished. Degra quickly stood up from his seat.

"It's the truth. The data is accurate. Anyone with an objective eye will come to the same conclusion," he said.

"You have no idea what the truth is! Your sympathy for these humans has corrupted your judgment!" Dolim stated. Degra bristled slightly at this.

"My judgment is perfectly sound!" Dolim once again spoke up as he slowly rose from his seat.

"Were you using sound judgment when you LET THESE HUMANS INTO OUR COUNCIL CHAMBERS?!"

"This evidence must be seen by this council. You would have stopped us from seeing the data at all!"

"It is my duty to PROTECT THIS COUNCIL FROM ITS ENEMIES!" Dolim yelled once more before the Aquatics began speaking in their language, to which Hoshi quickly translated.

"'This arguing is pointless! We are here to discuss the human's claims'." Degras fellow Primate councilman spoke up.

"Agreed! We need to return to the subject at hand," he said. Dolim sat back down quickly followed by a slower Degra. All was quiet for but a moment before Archer once again began speaking.

"I am trying to save my world," he admitted to Dolim before moving toward the tank housing the Aquatics. "But it's not just Earth that's in danger! If you wipe out Mankind, you'll be destroying yourselves." Dolim, once again stood up in protest and began speaking.

"I refuse to listen to any more of this!" Archer marched to Dolim before continuing.

"Earth is going to lead a battle that defeats the Sphere Builders. They know this! Thats why they manipulated you into attacking us!" Dolim immediatly faced Archer and screamed in his face.

"ENOUGH!" Dolim looked at Archer for a moment before turning back to the Council. "I demand the immediate seizure of this creature and his crew!" Degra stood up quickly and yelled out to make sure his next words were heard by all in the chamber.

"Anyone that attempts to take Archer or his fellow crewmen will be arrested and charged!"

"You will not defy this council!" Dolim protested.

"We haven't even arrived at a decision yet!" Degra's fellow councilman spoke up.

"And we never will as long as we listen to this human's lies! If this council will not defend its people, then it has no reason to exist!" Dolim stated as he and his secondary councilman moved to leave.

"Wait!" Degra said as he grabbed Dolim's shoulder pads. Dolim quickly used his elbow to knock Degra back with a swift hit to the nose. Archer tried to come to his ally's defense but was quickly grabbed by the insectoid councilman and slammed down onto the nearby table. Said councilman spoke in an angry tone and Archer turned to Hoshi to get the translation.

"You don't want to know," she said. Archer sat back up with a slight groan as his back did not feel well from the slam. He, as well as his crewmen, and the Arboreal and Primate council members all retreated to the Primat councilmen's chambers.

"We have had difficult sessions before, in the days following the founding of this council," Jannar started. The second Primate councilman spoke up however.

"No this is different. The Council is on the verge of tearing itself apart."

"You underestimate us," Jannar stated.

"We were all in the same room! You saw what happened!"

"We knew it wasn't going to be easy," Degra stated to his subordinate, whom was unconvinced.

"We are never going to convince the Reptilians! Or the Insectoids!" Archer then spoke up.

"Then we'll focus on the Aquatics." Degra mentioned a problem to this suggestion.

"The Aquatics weigh every argument in excruciating detail. For a long time, they were against building the weapon." Archer was surprised at this but was curious.

"What changed their minds?" he asked.

"The Guardians addressed the Council. They presented, what they claimed, was a visual record taken from the future," Jannar partially answered. Degra finished the explanation after seeing Archer was still confused.

"It showed Mankind destroying our new homeworld."

"That convinced the Aquatics," Jannar stated.

"It was powerful evidence," Degra finished. The room fell deathly silent, with each person inside it trying to think of some way to turn this in their favor. Archer walked about the romm until he found a dry skull sitting upon an alter. Jannar noticed his curiosity and decided to explain what it was.

"The Avians. Once they darkened the skies of Xindus with their numbers. We formed the Council to prevent other Xindies from sharing their fate." Archer quickly interjected.

"Your 'Council' just might have the opposite effect." The room fell silent for another moment until Degra spoke again.

"Perhaps not. There may, yet, be a way to convince them."

 _ **Author's Note**_

 **I hope this longer chapter is pleasant for you guys. I tried to make it longer to try and make up for the massive lack of uploading. I realize that most of it is practically just the episode "** ** _Council_** **" but it is needed to advance the plot. Don't worry though. Either next chapter or the one after that is when we'll truly get to see the refit** ** _Enterprise in action. Rate and review and have a nice day you guys!_**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Among the stars of the Milky Way galaxy, hidden away from the prying eyes of humanity, a small fleet of aging vessels is preparing to launch a new offensive into undiscovered territory. The commander of the lead vessel checks around his command station to make sure all is ready for the assault.

"Are we absolutely sure that this data is accurate?" he asked his second in command, whom made a fourth check of the information before responding.

"Yes, the data is accurate. The fleet is ready to move on your order sir." The commander took a deep breath before giving the order that would change the lives of himself and the men under his command.

"Let's move."

 **(Line Break)**

The Tau'ri vessel _Prometheus_ was sitting in orbit of the singularity that had brought the _NX-01 Enterprise_ to this universe and had returned them to theirs no more than several hours beforehand. They were waiting for reinforcements and for several transports that were carrying the necessary pieces to build several defense stations and a research outpost to protect and study the anomaly. Captain James Shumer was enjoying a small cup of coffee as awaited the fresh vessels so that he may return to Pegasus with his task force, even if he will be several hours late.

His small peace was ended, however by his sensor/scanner officer.

"Sir, I'm detecting a large group of vessels on approach," he said. Shumer scrunched his brow. The fresh reinforcements weren't supposed to be here for another couple of hours.

"Is the science fleet a few hours early?" he asked the younger officer. The officer merely shook his head.

"Negative, sir. I received confirmation as soon as they entered hyperspace. There is no way they could… _CONFIRMATION! I HAVE A GROUP OF 10 HA'TAKS AND 16 AL'KESH EN-ROUTE TO OUR LOCATION! ETA - TWO MIKES!_ " the officer yelled out. Shumer dropped his cup of coffee with a loud _(shatter!)._

" _ALL HANDS! GENERAL QUARTERS! GENERAL QUARTERS! I WANT EVERYONE AT THEIR BATTLESTATIONS! LOAD RAILGUNS AND MISSILE TUBES! I WANT ALL OUR FIGHTERS AND BOMBERS IN THE AIR NOW! PRIME ENERGY WEAPONS AND RAISE DUAL SHIELDS!"_ Shumer screamed out. Officers ran about the bridge trying to follow the orders given by their commanding officer. The lights turned dim and red combat lights lit up as the ship moved to engage the target. A secure message was sent out requesting any reinforcements for the engagement.

While Tau'ri vessels were, pound-for-pound, better than anything the Lucian Alliance had at their disposal, the Lucian Alliance had vast amounts of war materials at their disposal from the fall of a 10,000 year old empire that was brought to ruin by the Tau'ri. They still outnumbered the Tau'ri even after almost fifty years of constant build-up of warships, soldiers, and advancing technologies.

Shumer's _Prometheus_ can stand up to 5 Ha'taks at one point with moderate damage in simulations but the _Daedalus II_ has never been forced to fight against 10 and their Al'kesh escorts on its own. This was about to be a real test for the _Prometheus._

A large purple vortex appeared near the edge of visual range and spewed out the twenty-six warships that had been detected by _Prometheus_. Two Ha'taks immediately pushed their engines to the max to engage the Tau'ri vessel while several of the Al'keshes engaged the Tau'ri Condors and Eagles. The other eight Ha'taks made a beeline for the anomaly, to which they managed to re-open due to an improvised warhead. The _Prometheus_ fired off its Asgard and Ancient beam weapons which destroyed one Ha'tak and quickly dropped the shielding of the other by a significant percentage. The railguns were spewing out rounds at a high rate of fire to relieve the pressure on the Eagles and Condors that were in the air. A quad of Eagles peeled off and made chase to the remaining Al'kesh that had decided to stay with the fleet of eight Ha'taks.

Those Al'kesh peeled off and engaged the Eagle fighters. After the destruction of the last Ha'tak, _Prometheus_ peeled away and increased to full combat thrust, diverting power from shielding to push the vessel to its limits so that it could engage the final eight Ha'taks. Sadly, it was too late. The remaining vessels disappeared through the anomaly.

"Send a message to Valhalla and GPF Carter. We were engaged by a large Lucian Alliance force. Two Ha'taks destroyed along with sixteen Al'keshes, but eight other Ha'taks managed to get past us and entered the anomaly to the other universe," Shumer ordered. The comms officer turned to their post to send out the message. Shumer looked out the window towards the anomaly. "Today just got far more interesting."

 **(Line Break)**

"The Council is preparing to betray its own people," a Guardian stated as she stood at the front of Dolim's bridge.

"Archer has achieved _nothing_ ," Dolim attempted to reason.

"He has succeeded in raising doubts about us. The Arboreal, Humanoids, _and_ Aquatics are considering what he had to say!" the Guardian continued. "He should not have been allowed near the Council." Degra looked away in slight shame.

"I could not prevent it," he defended himself.

"And now, they may decide _against_ launching the weapon," the Guardian stated.

"The weapon will be deployed," Dolim tried to reason but the Guardian had doubts.

"For that to happen, three of the species must agree." Dolim's secondary councilman spoke up from the side of the room.

"If we can convince them that your people _didn't_ build the spheres-" he was interrupted by the Guardian.

"Prove to them? Or to you?" she asked ominously. Dolim, though angry at the Lieutenant, spoke up in his subordinate's defense.

"My Lieutenant simply wishes to know if there is a way to persuade the Council?" he finished.

"Persuasion is no longer a viable option," the Guardian stated and continued. "You must act with the Insectoids. Secure the weapon." she ordered.

"The weapon is well guarded. Casualties on both sides would be heavy. We'd be risking civil war," Dolim explained.

"A temporary schism cannot be avoided, but eventually, Reptilians will preside over a stronger, unified Xindi Empire," the Guardian announced. Every Reptilian on the bridge, including Dolim, stood a bit prouder to hear those words from the Guardian whom continued. "We will guarantee Reptilian Dominance, if Humankind is eradicated."

"Understood," Dolim replied to the orders. The Guardian said no more as she faded from the universe to join her sisters in another dimension. Dolim turned to walk off the bridge to follow his orders when he stopped next to his Lieutenant and spoke to him. "If you ever question the Guardians again, your skin will adorn the bow of this ship." Dolim didn't wait for a response. He simply left to begin the Guardian's work.

 **(Line Break)**

"Yes. This will be perfect," Degra stated as he looked through the data on a PADD. He was looking at the long-dead Sphere Builder that the _Enterprise_ had stumbled upon weeks beforehand. Archer was curious.

"What is this procedure exactly?" he asked. Degra looked up from the PADD and explained.

"It was developed by the Aquatics. They have an innate distrust of the spoken word, but they respond more to visual stimuli. You made sure the pod you found this alien in is here with us correct?" Degra asked. Archer was still confused as to what procedure needed to be done but he answered Degra.

"Yes, it's sitting in the cargo bay of your ship."

"Good. I'll have to slightly modify it, though it would help if I had someone with prior knowledge on this vessel to assist me with the modifications," Degra requested. Archer thought about it for a second. Though he might have an attitude about it, Trip needed to help Degra to help with this situation.

"I'll contact my chief engineer. He ran over the pod several times trying to figure it out," Archer didn't mention the possible hostility as Degra had already seen it, and could apparently remember it as he stiffened up at the mentioning of Trip.

 **(Line Break)**

"You need something Cap'n?" Trip asked over the secure sub-space line. Archer took a breath before explaining what he needed Trip to do.

"Can you help him with the tasks?" he asked his Engineer. Trip looked incredibly uncomfortable but signed off on the project. Archer gave the communication PADD to Degra before leaving to try and iron out what else he needed to say to the Xindi Council.

"Your captain believes there is no one better to assist me with these modifications," Degra tried to start a conversation. "I agree." Trip wasn't having it.

"Do me a favor? Don't try to get on my good side," he simply stated. Degra tried to continue.

"Look, I understand you and I will always be enemies"

"You got that right." Degra stopped in an empty hall and raised his voice a bit.

"I can't change what happened to your sister or _any_ of the seven million. But i'm risking my life. I'm risking the lives of my _family_. I've _killed_ members of my own species, all because I'm trying to save _both_ our worlds," Degra finished. Trip was silent for a few moments before speaking again.

"Let's get to work." Degra nodded in agreement and continued on his way to the pod to begin the modifications. Several hours later, Degra returned to his office in the Ancient Avian Temple to find Archer studying his PADD.

"We've completed the work," he states. "Mr. Tucker was… extremely cooperative. I know it isn't… easy for him to work with me." Degra finished into an awkward silence. It lasted for a few moments before Degra turned to leave once more.

"Degra," Archer called. Said Xindi turned about to look into the face of Archer who stood up and walked to look Degra in the eye. "When I was on board the future _Enterprise_ , 400 years from now, there were Xindi aboard. Humans and Xindi were serving together in the Federation. That's a future worth fighting for." The silence that followed was far more comfortable and hopeful than when Degra had finished speaking.

Several hours later they were walking back into the Council chambers when Archer decided to fish telling Hoshi what had gotten him into trouble all those years ago.

"Passing notes," he said. Hoshi was confused.

"Sir?" she asked. Archer smirked.

"I got in trouble for passing a note in class. It was to Katie Bently. I was inviting her to a party a friend of mine was having." Hoshi smirked and asked him a question.

"What'd she say?"

"Funny thing. She had already turned me down, but after I got in trouble…" he left it at that.

"Some women can't resist the bad boys," Hoshi stated before they both entered the Council chambers once more with their security detail directly behind them. Jannar spoke first.

"After much deliberation, we have decided to listen to this new evidence you wish to present." Degra then spoke up.

"Proceed." Archer took a moment before speaking.

"The sphere builders, the beings you call the Guardians, are the same species," he stated. Dolim, once again, interrupted Archer before he could speak further.

"Have you manufactured more data to support this claim?" he asked with a mocking tone. Archer ignored him.

"A few weeks ago, we came across an alien. He was adrift in what we believe was a Trans-Dimensional Disturbance. The alien was inside a pod which was constructed of the same combination of alloys that make up the outer shell of the spheres. He was a sphere builder." Archer finished speaking while facing the Aquatics. They made a series of screeching noises to which Hoshi quickly began translating.

"They say, 'You've already presented this information.'" Archer looked at her for a brief moment before continuing.

"Not all of it." He then turned to the security detail and gave them an order. "Bring it in." They both nodded their heads before heading outside and bringing back a large tube that was big enough to fit a human inside. In fact it seemed to already have an occupant, so it seemed anyway. The different council members took good long looks at the pod and the creature inside before Jannar spoke.

"Your data states that this alien disintegrated when it came into contact with our universe," he said.

"It did," Archer stated. Degra then spoke up.

"What you are seeing is a biometric hologram. It's the same technology used to train our physicians. It was constructed from medical data collected by _Enterprise's Senior Medical Officer,_ " he explained. The Insectoids began speaking again and Archer, again, turned to Hoshi.

"'How do we know the data used to create this phantom wasn't falsified?'" she translated. Degra began again.

"Humans don't have the technology to produce a fabrication of this detail." Archer faced the whole of the Council once more.

"Tell me. Is this one of the Guardians?" he asked. Jannar walked closer to the pod to get a closer look at the creature inside.

"The physical resemblance is hard to deny," he stated before the Aquatics spoke up once more.

"'It is a guardian,'" Hoshi translated. The Insectoids began quickly chattering and Hoshi continued to translate for them. "'We are not deceived by this illusion. Restore the dignity of our council. Expel the Humans from this chamber.'" There was silence for a brief period of time before someone, unexpected spoke up.

"We… are open to hearing more," Dolim stated. Degra looked to his second before Jannar spoke up again.

"So are we," he agreed. The Aquatics spoke out as well.

"'We agree,'" said Hoshi translating.

"Please, continue," Jannar finished before moving back to his seat at the table. Archer looked upon the council with the fire of hope burning in his chest growing ever brighter.

 **(Line Break)**

Archer was sitting in Degra's room in the temple once more as the council spoke in private. His foot lightly tapping on the floor in anticipation. Degra quickly walked in with his second.

"There's been a development," he said.

"We have the three votes we need," the second stated. Degra began an explanation.

"The Reptilians have agreed to postpone the launch of the weapon. They'll need more convincing before they solidify their position, but this is a _significant_ step forward," Degra stated. Before Archer could say anything, Degra held out his arm. "That future you spoke of… Perhaps this is where it begins." Archer was speechless but shook his ally's hand in deep gratitude. There was silence before Hoshi spoke up.

"I was wondering if I could have some help with our translator. It was having some trouble getting through all the Insectoid dialects," she asked of Degra. He looked at Archer before moving towards Hoshi.

"I'll be glad to help," he stated. He took the PADD that Hoshi handed him and they both sat down running through the translations from the last meeting.

 **(Line Break)**

Degra was sitting alone in his council chamber when he received a chime from his door.

"Come in," he called out. The door slowly opened to reveal Dolim standing alone. Degra took a breath before speaking again. "I wasn't expecting you."

"There are some things we need to discuss," Dolim said. He walked towards the window in Degra's room before speaking. "I never liked this place."

"I've always found it to be peaceful," Degra stated.

"It's too exposed. Reptilians prefer to be near the ground. And then there's the stench." Dolim complained.

"Stench?" Degra asked.

"Of failure," Dolim answered. "Of a race that failed to survive." Degra stood up and walked to Dolim before speaking again.

"I was surprised be your decision to postpone the launch," Degra admitted.

"It seemed like the right thing to do," Dolim said.

"I hope the other members will come to the same conclusion."

"They'll fall into line. I have always believed that all Xindi long for unification. It's in our blood," the Reptilian stated.

"I agree." Dolim looked at Degra's terminal and noticed what was on it.

"The Earth ship," he stated. Fearing for Dolim finding out the truth, Degra began his explanation while walking towards the Reptilian Commander.

"I am assisting them with their engine repairs," he said.

"They have found quite an ally in you. It's a shame you don't share such sentiments with your fellow Xindi," Dolim stated accusingly. Degra was confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"We recovered a sensor encoder from our missing scout ship. Hidden inside the cloaking barrier of a sphere. It contained the final scans it took before the ship was destroyed… by you," Dolim finished shaking in anger. Degra was surprised and fearful now.

"I don't know what you are talking about," he said trying to play innocent. Dolim wasn't having it.

"The evidence is irrefutable. We have an image of your ship firing! Don't try to deny what you did," Dolim stated threateningly.

"They left me no choice," Degra defended.

"And you've left me no choice," Dolim stated before swiftly grabbing ahold of Degra a shoving a blade into his abdomen. Degra said nothing. His face filled with shock and pain. He looked back up to Dolim as the Reptilian began speaking. "The crew on that ship, are the last Xindi that you'll _ever_ betray." Dolim pulled the knife back out but not before twisting it clockwise to induce as much damage and pain as he could. Degra fell to the floor with a groan, his blue blood pouring out of his wound. Dolim crouched down and showed Degra the blade covered in blood.

"When the Humans have been eliminated, when the council has been replaced by _Reptilian_ rule, I'm going to find your wife and children and do the same to them, Your traitorous bloodline will end, _at the tip of my blade."_ Degra passed feeling the pain of the wound, and the fear of his family being slaughtered by the creature in front of him.

 ** _Author's Note: I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope that it answers some of the PM's I have received the last 24 hours with what was going to be going on with the story. As always, I hope you enjoy and be sure to r &r. Thank you. _**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Archer was returning to the Councilman's Quarters to speak to Degra when said Xindi's aid stopped him.

"Degra's dead," he stated. Archer's brow rose in shock as the aid continued. "He was found dead in his quarters about an hour ago. He'd been murdered. Stabbed." Archer leaned back against the wall, shock clearly evident on his face. Then rage took its place.

"Who did this," Archer asked, his voice dangerously low.

"The Reptilians have called an emergency meeting of the Council," the aid stated, saying the name of his fellow Xindi with disdain. It was obvious who he thought murdered his friend and colleague. "I believe their recent turn-about was just a ruse to keep us off guard. They're planning something. I'm certain of it. You and your away team are in danger."

"Get to the Council, quickly," Archer said. Archer made his way to grab the rest of his away team as Degra's aid headed to the Council Chambers where he found the other councilors in the middle of an argument.

"So you admit to killing him?!" Jannar yelled at Dolim who stood on the opposite side of the room.

"With Pride. He was a traitor," Dolim defended. Degra's aid chimed in at this point.

"He was a member of this Council!"

"Degra destroyed a reptilian vessel. 22 crewmen died! I only regret not doing it sooner!" Dolim yelled, pride echoing within his words.

"You're going to regret a lot more than that!" Degra's aid yelled out. Jannar decided to move on as he figured there must be more to this.

"Why did you call this meeting?" he yelled out to Dolim.

"You have a decision to make. We have taken control of the weapon. We're going to launch it," Dolim answered.

"And you accuse Degra of being a traitor?!" the aid yelled out. The Insectoids then spoke up.

"'We are acting on behalf of all Xini.'" they said. Dolim spoke up once more.

"Either you stand with us, or you stand against us."

"That's not a choice. It's an ultimatum!" Jannar exclaimed.

"Call it what you will," Dolim stated. The Aquatics then spoke up.

"'We won't submit to intimidation,'" they stated.

"Neither will we," Degra's aid stated.

"None of us will," Jannar finished.

"Then we withdraw from this Council," Dolim stated. Jannar was racking his mind trying to figure out the madness before him.

"Think about what you are doing. This alliance has lasted for decades!" he tried to reason.

"It's lasted too long. You've become complacent." Dolim argued.

"The weapon cannot be launched without three of the codes!" the aid said with a small smirk. "You only have two."

"Do you really believe we hadn't considered that?" Dolim asked of all. A feeling of dread spread throughout the resisting council members, before Degra's aid widened his eyes in fear.

(Line Break)

Archer and his away team were quickly packing up. One of the two MACO's was out looking for Hoshi who was out studying the text written on some of the walls. The other was standing guard as Archer grabbed all he needed as he waited for the Enterprise to arrive. He gave an order for them to push the new hyperdrive to its limits, but it would still take a while before they arrived.

All of a sudden, particle blasts could be heard down the hall. The MACO took up a defensive position as Archer grabbed his phase pistol and did the same. The fire grew louder until the other MACO came around the corner firing of his weapon toward an unseen enemy.

"What's going on?" Archer quickly asked. The MACO swapped out with his counterpart to catch a quick break. His uniform was dusty and torn in several places and he was breathing fairly heavily from running.

"I was looking for Ensign Sato when I heard her screaming. I found several of the Reptilians taking her away while two more started to fire on my position. I tried using my communicator but it was damaged as I took a grazing hit to my arm. I ran back here to try and warn you, sir." the young lad finished. Archer gave the boy a squeeze on the shoulder before moving to assist the other MACO.

The firefight only lasted a few moments before the Reptilian guards were taken out from behind. Archer noticed Degra's aid coming around the corner armed with a small pistol and stopped the MACO from firing.

"Six Insectoid vessels are now escorting the weapon into orbit. Once it reaches a safe distance, a votex will take it the rest of the way to Earth. We have Degra's shuttle in orbit ready to pick you up and get you out of here," the aid reported.

"No. We will stay aboard the shuttle and help out how we can. The Reptilians have my communications officer. We can't let them take her." Archer argued. The aid would have argued further but the sounds of footsteps told him that they were out of time.

The group of four quickly made their way to the hangar where they managed to launch the shuttle without incident.

"I've made a call for reinforcements to intercept the weapon. Several Reptilian vessels have joined the Insectoids escorting the weapon. We are within weapon range." Near instantly, sparke were flying as green lances of particle energy started striking the small craft's shields. Blue pulses of energy soon joined and the shield strength quickly began to falter. Luckily the small craft was joined by several Arboreal and Primate vessels which quickly took much of the pressure off of the small shuttle.

The space surrounding the Xindi Weapon was filled with ships and weapons fire. Green and blue lances of energy colliding between different vessels. Smaller Insectoid vessels were quickly whipped out thanks to the larger Arboreal vessels but both sides were taking heavy damage. Degra's shuttle used its superior speed and maneuverability to get in close to the Weapon to try and destroy the smaller primary power generators. It was far easier as the weapon appeared to be unshielded. Every other time the shuttle fired, a generator was blown out. And it was taking a toll on the larger weapon and the crew inside.

Unfortunately, they were too late. Archer watched as the Weapon as well as a good number of Insectoid and Reptilian warships vanished into a vortex. Archer had not only lost the weapon, but the Reptilians had the means to arm it. Archer stared at the PADD the MACO sent to find Hoshi retrieved. Hoshi was in the hands of the enemy, and her brilliance may be the absolute downfall of Earth and the Human race.

(Line Break)

It was several minutes after the Weapon vanished that the upgraded Enterprise appeared from a hyperspace window. Though Archer managed to dispel any hostilities, there was still a somber mood throughout the small fleet of warships. The weapon had launched, and even though they only had two of the three needed activation codes, the Reptilians had kidnapped Ensign Hoshi Sato. They were most likely using her to translate one of the final three codes.

Archer knew she would never work willingly so she is most likely being tortured. Archer would make sure that Dolim and his followers would pay dearly for all 23 crewmen lost on this mission and he would bring Hoshi home.

To say the fleet was surprised at the Enterprise, and her appearance differing from what many had seen in data recordings from the battle that resulted in her near destruction, would be an understatement. Though hostilities had been avoided, many arboreal and primate captains were questioning their respective councilors about the Earth vessel's very apparent upgrades. It took time before Captain Archer was able to gain an audience with the councilors.

"He cannot deploy the weapon. Not yet," Jannar stated to Archer.

"Each of the species has a set of command codes to initiate the firing sequence. Three of them are needed to activate the weapon," Degra's assistant spoke. Jannar cut in again.

"They only have two. We obviously don't intend to give them ours."

"What about the Aquatics?" Archer asked.

"Their actions aren't easy to predict. But so far, they seem determined not to take sides." Degra's assistant answered. Jannar spoke again.

"It's more likely the Reptilians and Insectoids will attempt to bypass the command codes themselves."

"And that will take time," the assistant finished. Archer stared at the floor a moment before revealing something to the councilors.

"They've abducted my communications officer, Hoshi. I suspect they are using her to attempt to translate the third code they need. And I believe she is being tortured as I know she would never willingly work to destroy her home." The very thought of his crewman being tortured pissed Archer off to no end. And he was having a tough time of keeping his cool.

(Line Break)

"This could be a command subroutine," T'pol stated.

"Yeah, and it could be a letter to Santa Clause. I wouldn't mind having Hoshi here right about now." Trip said solemnly. T'pol lowered her gaze from the computer terminal for a moment.

"We'll have to make do without her," she said.

"I just hope she's ok." Trip hoped. Strangely T'pol seemed agitated at this.

"We're here to analyse this data, not speculate on Ensign Sato's fate," she said facing the terminal, which happened to face away from where Trip was working. He looked up, confusion written on his face.

"You ok?" he asked T'pol. She slowly turned around to face him before speaking again.

"I am fond of Hoshi as well, but we can't allow her situation to become a distraction." It was at this time the door opened to reveal Captain Archer.

"Any luck?" he asked. T'pol immediately went to work.

"There is a great deal of data to analyse, but we've made some progress. We know the spheres are connected by a subspace energy grid, but four of them appear to be integral to that connection," she reported. Four spheres were lit up on the console in front of her as she stated this.

"The closest one is here," Trip said pointing to one of the dots on the screen. "We've designated it Sphere 41."

"Integral how?" Archer asked.

"I believe they act as control spheres, allowing the network to operate in concert." Archer took this information in for a moment before speaking up.

"If we can damage one of them, would it disrupt the entire grid?" he asked.

"Maybe. It also might have no effect. We just don't have enough information yet," Trip replied.

"Keep at it." Archer ordered.

"Aye, sir," Trip stated before the door slid shut behind Archer, leaving T'pol and Trip alone with the data core once more.

(Line Break)

"Cooperate and this won't be necessary," Dolim said to a struggling Hoshi, trying her damndest to get out of the cuffs holding her down. One Reptilian was inching toward her with some unknown device obviously built for torture. It seemed not unlike a gun with an obvious barrel and handle as well as a trigger. Just before the officer could start, Dolim spoke up again.

"Wait." He leaned closer to Hoshi. "After the injection, the parasites will invade your neocortex. Once they begin reconfiguring your synaptic pathways, you'll be much more compliant. Before your primate brain is too badly damaged to understand, I want to thank you for helping us destroy your world." Hoshi reacted by spitting in Dolim's face. The disgust shown on his face brought her some semblance of victory. Dolim simply moved back slightly before signaling his subordinate to begin.

As soon as the trigger on the device was pulled, Hoshi screamed in complete agony as the device drilled a hole through her skull before injecting the aforementioned parasites directly into her cranial cavity.

(Line Break)

"If they stayed in the vortex, we wouldn't have found them," Jannar reported.

"They are less than four light-years from here," Degra's assistant added.

"Why have they stopped?" Malcolm asked. "They could've been halfway to Earth by now."

"They're attempting to arm the weapon. The propulsion systems have to be offline to do it," the assistant responded.

"How fast can your people get there?" Archer asked. His upgraded vessel could get there in a few moments with the hyperdrive systems, but the Xindi still use Warp drive systems. Archer did not want to go on an assault of the weapon alone for even the shortest time.

"That wouldn't be wise. They've been joined by a large amount of vessels. Though your ship has been upgraded, our inferior force could not withstand that firepower long enough to make a difference," Jannar pointed out.

"You have nearly as many ships." Archer said.

"You may have noticed that Insectoids and Reptilians are more belligerent than we are. Their ships are armed accordingly," the assistant argued. Archer walked around for a moment taking in this information.

"We're no match for them," Jannar finished.

"We've been outgunned before, sir. We did not come all this way to give up without a fight," Malcolm stated. Archer looked at him and nodded his head in thanks.

"Would the Aquatics be a match for them?" Archer asked the two councilors.

"They're ships are extremely powerful, but they've seen your evidence. They're not convinced," the assistance argued. Archer quickly responded.

"That was before the Reptilians murdered Degra and stole the weapon. We're looking at civil war. Can they afford to sit back and do nothing?" The two councilors looked at each other for a moment. "Let me talk to them."

(Line Break)

As Archer traveled in Degra's shuttle to the Aquatic vessel, the Arboreal and Primate councilors were speaking with the Aquatic councilor, though since Hoshi was taken, Archer had no idea what was being said by the Aquatic, but he could guess from the others' responses.

"Now is not the time to dissolve the council," Degra's assistant stated. The Aquatics bellowed in their own language. The assistant responded to what was said.

"So we should leave our fate in the hands of the Insectoids and Reptilians?" The Aquatics once again responded. The assistant walked away from the control station to get closer to the main view-screen.

"I disagree. The evidence the humans provided can't be ignored." Once again the Aquatics respond in a manner that reminded Archer of ancient Humpback whale music that he heard about in an aquarium back on Earth when he was younger. It was too bad the species had gone extinct. Once the Aquatics had finished "speaking," the viewscreen cut out.

"I didn't quite catch that last part," Archer stated.

"They've agreed to meet with us," The assistant said and Archer sighed in relief, but the assistant continued. "But don't expect much Captain."

 _ **Author's Note: Sorry about the wait guys but I go through sparks of creativity before hitting writer's block all over again. I hope you enjoy this chapter and what is coming up (Hopefully Soon). To those that have noticed, the reason I haven't used the name for Degra's assistant is because he doesn't officially have one. I looked it up and he was never named in the series at all. I can't think of a good Xindi name so I'm trying to work around it. Also, one of my sparks involved another crossover that I really haven't seen too much of. It involves Independence Day and Mass Effect. Namely what would happen if a far more Xenophobic Earth was confronted with the Citadel species in 2157 along with the combined technologies of the Locusts from ID4 and the Prothean technologies found on Mars and the Mass Relays. I'll see about listing out some finer points by tomorrow. Anyways thank you for reading and be sure to leave a comment! I read them all to keep myself motivated so anything helps, bar flames of course.**_

 _ **P.S. To the Guest that left the large comment on June 23rd, thank you very much for that. I was having a pretty crappy day and that comment just truly made me smile so thank you!**_


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